Martial Arts Madness!
Kung Fu Masters and WuSu Warriors
Bringing Kinetic Kung Fu Flavor to The Greatest Show On Earth®!
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Frank Erwin Center
JUNE 25-29, 2003

(Austin, TX)- From Hong Kong action flicks to The Matrix, from video games to hip-hop, in recent years martial arts has taken American popular culture by storm. Now, The Greatest Show On Earth® introduces audiences to its own unique brand of hyper-kinetic Kung Fu energy! The show comes to Austin’s Erwin Center Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, June 29 for seven fun-filled performances.

Jumping Through Hoops
Born in England of Chinese descent and raised in Germany, Master Fredi Chy began performing a traditional martial arts act in European circuses when he was just seven years old. As an adult, he traveled throughout Europe in a number of circuses and variety shows, including Circus Williams and Switzerland's Circus Knie. It was during these years that Master Chy taught his daughter, Ringling Bros. co-star Mei Ling, the Empress of Equilibrium, the ancient art of hand balancing. The 132nd Edition of The Greatest Show On Earth marks the first time father and daughter will be performing together in the United States.

While Kung Fu is traditionally known as a peaceful study of self-defense, Master Fredi Chy's variation on the ancient art is anything but placid. Combining uncanny concentration, ferocious discipline, and nonstop movement, Master Chy and his young Mongolian partner, Gantulga Barvil, bend steel bars around each other's thickly cabled necks, break boards across each other's brawny backs, and dive through flaming hoops lined with sharpened steel swords.

In a remarkable display of muscular control, Master Chy pushes a two-meter-long, 16-millimeter-thick steel bar into the soft spot above Barvil's collarbone, causing the rod to shudder and bend. The act, known as Qui Chi Gon, requires an immense amount of trust and non-verbal communication between the two partners. One false move and the steel bar could cause terrible injury to them both. And that's just a warm-up for the pair's finale. Giving new meaning to the phrase, "jumping through hoops," Master Chy and Gantulga take turns leaping through five steel hoops lined with 42 swords bursting with flames!

Enter The WuSu Warriors
A hyper-stylized combination of Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Tae Kwon Do, the WuSu's martial arts marvels are combative without being violent, closer to a formalized dance than a street fight. Xianping Zhang, the WuSu's 24-year-old coach and lead performer, explains that the group seeks an aesthetic of "speed and softness." Achieving this uncanny balance requires a rigorous regimen: six hours of practice and training a day, and a strictly observed, protein rich diet.

Much of the WuSu's act has the 11-members wielding performance swords and sticks known as "swinging dragon swords" and "winged pursuing swords." These clanging, shimmering weapons aren't meant to inflict harm, rather, they are used as pictorial elements to add to the synchronized pageantry. "It's good for people's physical and mental health," Zhang says of the increasing popularity of martial arts in the United States.