golden dragon acrobats

it's always entertaining to watch people do things really, really, really well. to pull a few random examples from my brain: master glass blowers, tiger woods in that amex ad, the nasa geeks in the book "lost moon," hillary clinton working a crowd.

none of the above were at the new victory theater this afternoon, so all of scoboco's attention was on the golden dragon chinese acrobats. and they were unbelievably good at what they've chosen to try to be good at: juggling hats, and volleyballs (with their feet), and umbrellas (also with feet); contorting their bodies until they seemed almost boneless while, for example, balancing ten trays of shot-glass pyramids on their hands and feet and mouth and torso and head; standing on one hand atop a teetering, 50-foot tower of chairs--a slow-building stunt that had the entire audience visibly twisting with anxiety and suspense in our seats.

the costumes were nicely cheesy (though i just overheard bo describe them on the phone to her mom as "amazing," so what do i know?), the music safe but lively (i.e., that old enigma chestnut, mea culpa, with the gregorian chants), the choreography and stage mannerisms totally goofy. they did stuff that was so incredible you just had to laugh out loud. the three of us wore huge grins the entire two-hour show.

the golden dragon acrobats will be at the new victory through january 1. i got our seats just two days ago, on friday, but the theater was totally full, and when i called they were sold out of the $25 and $10 tix, so i had to splurge on the $50 orchestra seats, which were awesome but not necessary.