Chinese Banner Stunts, imbued with Chinese tradition
2 min readHoop Diving and Military Athletics
The Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) saw the emergence of a contest in which performers dove through a bamboo mat rolled into a narrow cylinder. This skill was called Dashing Through Narrows, referring to the small diameter of the cylinder, or Swooping Swallow Shoots the Rapids, comparing the performer’ sflying leap to a swallow skimming through a narrow river gorge. In a military variation called Gate of Swords, contestants dove naked through the narrow opening of a woven grass hoop bristling with sword blades. Today’s acrobatic Hoop Diving has its origins in these ancient tests of skill and mettle.
It was only a few decades ago that hoop diving found its way into modern Chinese acrobatics. In the past, performers dove through circles of knives, rings of fire, or the “gate of swords”in a blind pursuit of danger, significantly limiting the development of hoop diving as an art. Today, emphasis is placed on maintaining safety while maximizing thrills. Performers are able to concentrate on creating new patterns and techniques of hoop diving, rather than on avoiding injury. Through the unstinting efforts of numerous acrobatic troupes, new variations are constantly emerging in the three major categories of Rotating Hoop Diving, Ground Hoop Diving, and Barrel Diving.
One of the characteristics of Chinese acrobatics is the pursuit of increasingly difficult challenges, theperformers’ skillful conquest of each obstacle offering further expression of their courage and intelli-gence. Hoop diving is a classic example. Although tumbling is the most dynamic of the moving arts, acrobatic artists succeed in executing these extremely difficult movements while flying through the confines of narrow and constricted hoops. Increasing the number of hoops to two, three, or even five in a spectacle of breathtaking skill, they flip through sideways, in groups, backwards, spinning, or in pairs or trios, like trains rushing past each other in a narrow tunnel.
