MELBOURNE, March 31, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- The Nanjing Cultural Exchange Project, which celebrates the ten year relationship between Melbourne’s National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) and the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe of China, was officially launched by Heidi Victoria MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier and Assisting the Premier with the Arts.
As part of the project, artists and trainers from the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe have been working with NICA students in Australia in the lead up to a joint circus production entitled Beautifully Imperfect.
The collaboration reinforces the Cultural Memorandum of Understanding between Victoria and Jiangsu Province that has been in effect since 2002, and the broader sister state relationship established in 1979.
Speaking at the launch, Ms Victoria said that NICA trains the best circus artists in the world.
"The beautiful thing about this collaboration is that audiences will be greatly enriched but so will the performers," she said.
The project also recognises the contribution of NICA’s Head of Circus, Lu Guang Rong, who first arrived in Australia as an artist with the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe in 1983 as part of the first cultural exchange between Chinese and Australian circus artists. He later joined NICA full-time in 2000.
Under the artistic direction of Rob Tannion, Beautifully Imperfect features four artists from the Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe and NICA’s final year Bachelor of Circus Arts students. The performance explores the tension between our desire for perfection and the beautiful reality of our human fallibilities and flaws.
The inaugural Richard Pratt Creative Fellowship, which supports Rob Tannion’s residency at NICA, was also announced during the launch. The fellowship commemorates Pratt’s involvement with NICA as a founding company director, and celebrates his contribution to the arts in Australia.
NICA is a national arts training institute that offers Australia's only Bachelor of Circus Arts, which is accredited by Swinburne University of Technology. The institute will also celebrate its 10 year anniversary in 2011.
The season of Beautifully Imperfect will be opened by Victorian Premier, Ted Baillieu on 13 April and will run until 20 April 2011. Tickets are available from www.nica.com.au.
View the full media release and photos on Swinburne’s Media Centre: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/chancellery/mediacentre/media-centre/news/2011/03/nica-and-nanjing-collaborate-on-new-circus
