Chinese Sate Circus @ The Sage, Gateshead

Reviewed by Matt Hudspith

Last night was the first time I had ever been to a circus, and although The Chinese State Circus is not your typical circus, it still had me glued to my seat at The Sage in Gateshead. We were treated to watch the story of 'Mulan' unfold right before our eyes and although this was a performance geared towards children the majority of the crowd was made up of adults, all extremely impressed.

The first half contained The Shaolin Warriors who amazed the audience with their sword trickery and martial art skills, which involved twisting their bodies into shapes I thought weren't humanly possible. I was extremely impressed by the strength, balance, and determination of the men who were involved in this part of the show. After the Shaolin Warriors came the Lantern throwers who balanced 15ft lanterns on just one arm and would seamlessly complete forward rolls while still holding them. The Lantern throwers finished off their performance with a routine that involved throwing the lanterns to one another in a straight line without looking, this part of the performance was extremely well received by the crowd.

The final performance of the first half was by the female Unicyclists. This was arguably one of the best performances of the show. The girls would ride around on unicycles, balancing bowls on top of their heads then flip other bowls onto the one on their heads using their feet, it was truly incredible, all that I can say is that you need to see it to believe it! This was a fantastic end to the first half.

After the interval we were treated to more acrobatics. We saw men flying through hoops doing many a front flip and still managing to land on their feet as well as the second installment from the Shaolin Warriors. However in my eyes, the best part of the show came immediately after the interval when a group of gymnasts scaled two large vertical poles and flipped, slid and swung round them without breaking a sweat. This performance was simply fantastic.

I would highly recommend seeing the Chinese State Circus if given the chance as the words put before you do not do it justice, it really is something you have to see and experience to believe it.