B C M A G A Z I N E 0 6 M A Y 2 0 1 0

Tuan Le turns a circus production into a movingpicture of country life.Talk about circus performances and you will probably be wide-eyedabout fierce animals balancing on their hind legs and jumpingthrough hoops or performers in exaggerated costumes folding theirbodies into unrecognizable shapes. But that is not what you will findin Lang Toi, Tuan Le’s circus performance on Vietnamese village life.Here balancing and juggling acts joined by acrobatics makeeveryday chores and daily rituals as new and exciting as anythingyou’ll find under a big top. Tuan Le tells bc how his show cameabout and what it all means to him and his troupe.

Tuan Le, a juggler by profession, is not unfamiliar with circus life, ashe has toured the world with a variety of circus troupes.Nevertheless, when he turned to creating his own show, he didn’tlook for traditional clowns and slim ladies in spangled dressesstanding on prancing horses. Another notion entirely caught hisimagination – though it turned out to have a 10-year gestationperiod. ‘The idea for Project Lang Toi was born after a meetingbetween Nhat Ly and me many years after we first met. At the time,I was performing a show in Paris,’ he says.

‘Ly was a former student of my father – he was learning thetrumpet. At our first meeting, I was 8 years old and had just startedmy career in Vietnam as a juggler. Anyway, many years later inParis, we talked about setting up a project with Vietnameseperformers. Then, in 2000, I wanted to meet Nguyen Lan, a circusprofessor in France, so I invited him to Berlin to introduce him tomyself and a project I was working on at that time: I was creating avaudeville show with jazz musicians, jugglers and various otherartists,’ recalls Le. ‘Then later, in 2003, when I was preparing a newproject for the Berlin Cabaret Theatre, Nhat Ly was the soundengineer and together we decided to do a recording in Vietnam forthe show. We flew to Vietnam and recorded an album at theConservatory of Ho Chi Minh City but while we were in Vietnam, on

a visit to the National Circus School in Hanoi, we talked aboutcollaborating in the future with the students there. In no time thatled to a proposal for a prospective project together.’

Le and Ly got together with Nguyen Lan and the three of them cameup with a concept for a show which they put on paper and dulypresented to the circus school. ‘In 2005 we started the project inHanoi. Unfortunately the school requested more funding than wehad to make the project work. The three of us were desperate to getthe show on the road but we only had €2,500 sponsorship. We wereworried, but went ahead anyway. At the same time, I was lookingfor a new partner who could support us. Finally, we went to theVietnam Circus Federation in Hanoi and asked Mr Vu Hop, thedirector of the circus, to back us. He agreed, but by then time hadbecome very limited. We worked insane hours every day under aconcept Nguyen Lan had developed over many years of research.It’s a theory of “learn and play, play and learn” and one he still useswhen teaching as a circus professor in France.’

At this point, Le approached a good friend, Nguyen Tan Loc, achoreographer, to take charge of training the 80 performers in theshow in basic stage posture and dance movement. ‘Tan Loc gavethem lessons each morning, showing them how to use their bodiesin the most relaxed and flexible way and teaching them simpledance movements. He did a great job training the artists and alsocreated a very easy atmosphere with them.’ Meanwhile Nhat Ly wassourcing musicians skilled in traditional music. ‘We finally came tothe fruit of the entire process – a new circus show we called LangToi (My Village). We did six performances of that show, which wasessentially similar to but not entirely the same as the circus showpresented this year at the Le French May 2010,’ says Le.

Although Lang Toi 2005 and Lang Toi 2010 share the same concepts,much has changed in the time between them. The number ofperformers dropped from 80 to 14 and the musical team was pared

VillageJuggler10

words wilson fok