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Balls in the air: Ali Evans (right) and Fran Donovan, from Wales (right), show their skills. — Photo Thanh An |
HA NOI — Lately, teenagers and children have been frequenting the Sunday afternoon circus performance of a foreign entertainment group at Ha Noi Botanical Park.
The group which includes amateur artists of many nationalities, shows each audience outstanding and original skills. One of the members of the group, Fran Donovan, a petite from Wales, England carefully juggles colourful balls of all different sizes, catching them with her skilful hands.
"When I was a child, my parents used to take me to the local circus and to festivals on weekends. Watching people and animals performing magic tricks made a strong impression on me," said Donovan.
Donovan and her boyfriend Ali Evans started the group and invited their friends to join.
"I love children a lot. It was a great idea to teach them my tricks," she says while her hands are busy playing with five fabric balls.
"Beginners should practice with two balls of the same size. First, throw one ball into the air and watch it closely, not too high or too low so you are able to focus on the ball. When the first ball is already up, continue by throwing the second ball."
After living in Viet Nam for a year and a half, Donovan and her group all come from Ha Noi Circus Club, have performed in several places in Ha Noi. Most of the audience members are children, but more and more teenagers and young adults are coming to the shows. According to Donovan, the size of the audience changes constantly. Sometimes people she's never seen before pass by to watch the group perform.
"We do not have many toys to bring to the park, so we've asked our Vietnamese friends living in the Old Quarter to make more balls for us. The staffs are made from bamboo, and the clubs are made from rattan, which makes them very strong and stiff", added Donovan.
Evans, the group's leader, as well as an English teacher at the Australian Centre for Education and Training, is capable of playing with all the toys and said that patience is necessary to study circus.
"You can juggle as many balls as you want, as long as you practice everyday. It really depends on how much you try," he said.
Like Evans, others members in the group have a main career, but they still serve audiences without pay.
One of Evans's student, Bui Thi Hong Nhung, from the Ha Noi University of Agriculture, said, "I have never tried to learn these skills before. I only saw performances of animals and people in the Ha Noi central circus. Ali is a good teacher and a brilliant artist. This could be my new hobby."
Another member from France, Franny, attracts children with her poi performance.
"Poi is a performance art in which one or more balls are suspended from a certain length of flexible material, usually a plaited cord, and swung in circular patterns by the artist," said the poi artist.
The group plans to perform more skills in Ha Noi's Thong Nhat Park so that more children can come and watch.
"We just want to meet people and have fun. Money is not of certain to us," said Donovan. — VNS
