Performances by Vietnamese artists which combine circus skill, dance and installation art have received a warm welcome and high appreciation from French and Belgian audiences.

Vietnamese artists made a performing tour to France and Belgium for the last two months under the co-operation between the Vietnam Circus Federation and the Scene de La Terre Association from France.

According to Vietnam Circus Federation’s director, Artist of Merit Vu Ngoan Hop, Vietnamese artists gave 21 performances at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, France and in Angves in Belgium. All the performances were full of audiences.

The programme, entitled ‘My Village’, is staged by the Vietnam Circus Federation and the Viet Stage company. The idea to set up such a programme came six years ago under a project of cultural exchange between Vietnam and France with the aim of staging a new circus which combined both traditional feature of circus and contemporary art.

‘My Village’ was first performed in 2005 during the first ever Vietnam Circus Week in Hanoi. The performance earned people’s applause for its high artistic value.

“The original programme has the participation of over 100 artists but it’s impossible for us to make a tour abroad with the existing programme,’  said director Vu Ngoan Hop.

The new version of ‘My Village’ was then created to make it suitable fo a tour abroad. The new smaller programme includes the participation of 14 actors, four musicians and two technicians.

The programme is a combination of various kinds of art from dance, installation art and circus as the centerpiece.

The programme was created by using motifs from traditional Vietnamese culture and showing scenes from daily life in northern villages. The performance uses bamboo as the primary material. Artists dance and jump with bamboo as they want to present the rural scene of Vietnam. The show invites the public to discover the rural life of Vietnam, full of joy and poetry, where folk games, human interaction and traditional music are mixed with technical and physical performance, including acrobatics, balance and juggling.

After the tour to France and Belgium, Vietnamese artists have received invitations for performances in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Hong Kong (China), Singapore and others in 2010 and 2011. That will help move the Vietnamese circus forward on the world stage.

(Source: ND)