Holy %*$@!!! Have you seen these guys?!

Last night I went out with my girlfriends for “girls night” (as we like to do) to see the Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats at the Prochnow Auditorium at NAU. Thank you Greenhouse Productions! Last time they were in town was about 3 years ago and from what I overheard, everyone who saw them last time made sure to get their ticket in advance this time. These performers were phenomenal, seriously.

If I had to place them into some sort of genre, I’d say they were a cross between Circue du Soleil, the Ice Capades, and maybe David Blaine? There were 13 performers, about half men and half women. From our calculations, most of the performers were probably not older than their earlier 20’s and we figured retirement age for this profession is probably before the ripe age of 25.

A couple of the more impressionable acts…

The stacking of chairs, literally to the ceiling of the theater on top of 4 empty champagne bottles (probably about 35 feet in the air) followed by a woman climbing them to what would be anyone else’s ultimate doom. But she got up there and did one-handed handstands, various contortions, and other things that nearly made me pee my pants. Needless to say, all of the children sitting in the audience were on the edges of their seats. Riley, my boss’ 9 year old daughter, whom we brought along refused to look and told me she was sweating just thinking about it. No doubt this was an impressive one.

The plate spinners! Every good acrobatic act has plate spinners right? Well, Shangri-La’s consisted of all the ladies in company spinning about 10 plates each while tumbling, human-stacking, and creating an incredibly striking visual display.

Anyway…next time they’re in town, make sure you’re there, this show is too sweet to be missed.