Make the most of existing human resources

Vietnamese circus is a unique art form, people love circus for its authenticity, where artists cannot hide themselves in any hidden corner, with any defect, but expose all their health, flexibility, and dexterity to the eyes of countless audiences. However, with the uniqueness of this art, finding human resources in the future becomes more difficult than ever.

According to the Director of the Vietnam Circus Federation, People's Artist Tong Toan Thang: Circus art is facing the reality of "aging" human resources because the mindset of entering the circus profession is now different. In the past, we entered the profession with ideals, no matter how difficult or hard it was, we persevered. Now, many young people enter the profession more practically when they care about income. Moreover, circus requires hard work, high cruelty and potential risks, so many parents do not dare to let their children pursue the circus profession because of the hardship and fear of having no future. In addition, another challenge for the Vietnam Circus Federation is the "brain drain". Many entertainment companies, private tourist areas... have a need to recruit circus artists to perform for tourists, so they are willing to pay much higher incomes to "recruit" circus artists. In the vortex of worrying about making ends meet, some circus artists cannot avoid temptation.

"Seeing students graduating and working in private performing units, we feel extremely regretful because they only work there for a short time, without many conditions to develop their talents. To cultivate and develop their talents, only by participating in professional circus performing units, creating good acts to participate in domestic and international performances will they have the opportunity to develop into professional circus artists" - People's Artist Tong Toan Thang expressed.

Faced with such challenges, to solve the problem of human resources of the Circus Federation over the past years, People's Artist Tong Toan Thang said: "While waiting for the next generation of young human resources to continue the passion and develop this art, the Circus Federation is currently making the most of its existing resources. Although the artists are old, we still have to inspire them to continue pursuing their career. Along with that, we also orient the actors to practice multi-talented skills. If in the past, each actor only needed to practice one performance, now they can perform many performances. This both inspires creativity and increases the income of the actors. In addition, what circus artists cannot do, we invite seasonal collaborators. However, this is only a temporary solution".

"For sustainable development, circus art really needs a generation of talented people who are passionate about the profession. To do that, we cannot be passive, we must spread the value of circus art to young people. Therefore, in parallel with maintaining the current team of actors, we are planning to open clubs for artists to teach children to help them from a young age to be exposed to circus, to professional circus artists, thereby creating passion and love for circus art for them. From there, we hope to find young talents to send to professional training schools. That is the sustainable direction we are aiming for" - People's Artist Tong Toan Thang said.

Combine with many art forms to attract audiences

Not only is it a problem of human resources, although it has a higher entertainment value than other traditional art forms, Circus art is also facing a major obstacle of lack of audience.

People's Artist Tong Toan Thang shared: "In the past, when science, technology and media were not yet developed, audiences had to seek out traditional arts in general and circus arts in particular to enjoy. Now, in today's society, people have more choices in entertainment forms, especially young people, so circus arts must penetrate every individual, every corner of life to find audiences, especially young audiences."

Therefore, in order to attract more audiences to the circus, the Vietnam Circus Federation has had to make efforts to research the tastes and trends of the audience in order to change and innovate accordingly. People's Artist Tong Toan Thang said: "In recent years, we have made great efforts, been proactive and creative in building scripts to suit the tastes of all audiences, thereby changing the public's perception of circus art. For example, recently we have been very successful in combining circus art with other art forms. The circus performances that we combined with reformed opera or magic were successful beyond expectations, exploding in the warm applause of the public, marking the first successful step in exploiting a new direction to attract audiences.

Thereby, to continue to promote the advantages of circus with the ability to "go hand in hand" with many other artistic languages, in the near future, the Circus Federation will continue to launch circus works that combine the beauty of many other art forms such as circus with hip hop, circus with contemporary art... In particular, we are also planning to combine circus with Tuong art, where I do not force circus artists and Tuong artists to perform circus together but I will use the form of Tuong art, from costumes, music, masks and the spirit of Tuong to perform circus. Through the language of circus, we will introduce a genre, a traditional art image of Vietnam to international friends as well as help circus art or other traditional art forms get closer to the public".

People's Artist Tong Toan Thang also affirmed that this is a direction that will certainly be successful and go the long way. Because the trend of art now is entertainment. It is impossible to do art in a conventional, philosophical way, because the entertainment factor attracts viewers. Abroad, opera is very successfully combined with circus. Therefore, to attract audiences, circus or any art form must renew itself and resonate together, connect and share. However, among those artistic exchanges, circus will still maintain its special artistic character, clearly demonstrating the characteristics of Vietnamese circus on the journey to approach contemporary world art.

"I hope that today's circus will not only conquer the audience with its bravery and extraordinaryness, but also conquer the audience with emotions through the content of the story and the way each artist transforms into the character. At the same time, I also hope that our innovation and approach will contribute to the development of the cultural industry that our country is aiming for" - People's Artist Tong Toan Thang expressed./.