Theater offers perfect stage for country's flying acrobats

Beijing's Chaoyang Theater, which principally stages acrobatic shows, is one of the city's most important performance venues. It benefits from convenient transportation links, a favorable location in the capital's central business district, and offers audiences a range of comfortable seating options.

Many Chinese acrobatic troupes have performed in the theater, including Deyang Acrobatic Troupe from Sichuan province in Southwest China.

The troupe has given performances in the theater for nearly two decades.

Flying, one of the troupe's classic shows, has broken the traditional boundaries for acrobatics and thrilled successive audiences.

To get inspiration for the show, its leading creative talents and directors made several visits to areas such as the Sanxingdui and Jinsha archaeological sites in Sichuan province. Archaeological discoveries prove that Sanxingdui, which dates back to around the 12th-11th centuries BC, contains the ruins of an ancient city that was the political, economic and cultural center of the ancient Shu Kingdom.

The show is based on the worship of the sun and birds by people in the Sichuan region thousands of years ago as well as the universal human desire to fly freely like birds.

A section in the show named "Death Wheel", according to Zhou Xiaoheng, head of the acrobatic troupe, is rarely seen in domestic performances, and its breathtaking routines often shock spectators.