The Golden Dragon Acrobats bring highly touted show to Brooklyn College

For only the third time, Brooklyn will get to experience a performance by the Golden Dragon Acrobats, a Chinese acrobatic company that has been around for over 31 years.  Lead choreographer Angela Chang, who is the wife of founder and director of the company Danny Chang, is excited to share the various difficult acts during the performance at The Brooklyn Center for Performing Arts at Brooklyn College.

“We want to share the Chinese Acrobats culture and different acts with audiences all over the world,” she said regarding the company’s main goals.

The Golden Dragon Acrobats have been touring the world for decades. They include athletes, actors, and artists who have studied and trained for their craft since early childhood. The group averages 200 performances each year and has toured through all 50 states and in over 65 countries across the world.

According to Chang, the show will feature a series of high risk acts that the audience will be excited about. “We are showing different male and female team acts,” she said.  “We have the umbrella act with six girls. The youngest is 16 and oldest is 21. The very difficult part of that act is that the umbrella is very light and hard to control, especially using their feet.  It’s a challenging but exciting act. It might be easy with just one person performing it. But it’s a team act. All girls have to be very skilled to control the equipment and they need to work together.”

Other thrilling acts audiences can expect include acrobats standing on top of six chairs and the male group’s unicycle performance.

“The act that is most challenging is the male acrobats jumping through the hoops on a unicycle with no seat and one wheel,” Chang said. “They received gold medals during an international competition in France. It’s a very special act. I really enjoy it. When you see boys ride that single wheel, it’s amazing. The audiences love that act.”

Music, both classic and contemporary, will also be a key component of the show. “For the performance, we have a mix. It’s a little new age style along with traditional music. The new generation audiences aren’t really interested in slow traditional, so we added new modern style,” said Chang, who been a part of the group for 31 years as an acrobat.

The group has been nominated for New York Drama Desk Awards, much to the lead choreographer’s delight. “That was a very special honor,” she said. “We don’t try to win awards. It’s just means a lot with all the work we do to be nominated.”

The Golden Age Dragon Acrobats performance will take place at Brooklyn College on Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults and $12.50 for children ages 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased at www.brooklyncenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500.

“It’s great for the whole family, whether you’re three years old or an adult. We love seeing them enjoying,” added Chang. “We’re all like a huge family. Everybody works hard and needs to work together. We are one team.”

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