Circus dream project
The troupe’s passion for the circus enables them to train intensively. But for all their enthusiasm, it’s difficult to keep a performing arts company afloat in Taiwan, and money is always an issue. Member salaries, performance bonuses, the NT$70,000 rent for their practice space, and administrative costs add up to more than NT$400,000 per month. Lin admits that he’s currently in debt, that the company lost NT$400,000 on this year’s trip to Avignon, and that it has lost money on most of its previous performances abroad.
Why does the company undertake such money-losing overseas performances? In the case of Avignon, the troupe members see the festival there as their Harvard—it offered them an opportunity to broaden their horizons and have exchanges with the best circus performers in the world.
Established some seven years ago, the company gives more than 100 commercial performances every year. One of their goals for the future is balancing their commercial work with artistic performances. With FOCA growing, Lin and his partners have begun planning their next step: launching the “Circus Dream Project” in 2020. This involves introducing their own educational system and establishing a circus school, both to create an “escape route” for members and to help put FOCA on a sustainable footing.
Reflecting on the group’s passion and how that enables them to train intensively, my thoughts turn to the bashful Huang Kuan-jung. A graduate of a dance program, he doesn’t say much, but he does articulate FOCA’s collective goal: “The company is like a human pyramid—it takes everyone working together to make it work. You have to practice the same movements again and again, thousands of times, and you have to be willing to give yourself to your partner.”
That’s how they’ve supported one another for all these years.
FOCA was invited to the Tini Tinou International Circus Festival in Cambodia in 2015. In addition to performing, FOCA engaged in exchanges with other circus troupes, from both Cambodia and abroad.
FOCA members train together every day to improve their chemistry. The photo shows Chao Wei-chen (bottom) and Lo Yuan-yang. (photo by Jimmy Lin)