The “Bai Xi” tagged to the touring acrobatic troupe Cirque Shanghai may not be a literal truth, but it captures a sense of the company’s eye-arresting style.

“It means ‘100 Wonders,’ ” explained Cirque Shanghai’s assistant choreographer and translator Miao Miao Chen.

Cirque Shanghai: Bai Xi may not have 100 acts onstage when it performs tonight and Friday at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre — the number’s 22, in fact — but the audience likely won’t be counting.

“Cirque Shanghai: Bai Xi”

Performances: 7:30 tonight and Friday at the Waco Hippodrome Theatre, 724 Austin Ave.

Tickets: $39 to $62. Call 752-9797 or visit www.wacoperformingarts.org.

(Cirque Shanghai photo)

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The 23-performer company will unveil a wide range of traditional Chinese acrobatics: pole balancing, contortionists, plate spinning, ribbon dancing, handstand acts, hoop diving, even 15 people balancing on a bicycle.

“All the acts, they are amazing,” she said, speaking by phone from a tour stop in South Carolina. “They are acts you don’t see anywhere else.”

Cirque Shanghai formed five years ago in Shanghai, China, assembling a program of acrobatic feats, techniques and styles that date back hundreds, if not more than a thousand, years.

After held-over runs, including four consecutive summers at Chicago’s Navy Pier, the company took their acts to the road and has toured for the last two years, including forays in Panama and Costa Rica, Chen said.

The acrobatic ensemble will perform in Galveston and at Austin’s Paramount Theatre this weekend after its Waco performances.

In addition to stage choreography that shows off the stunts to maximum effect, Cirque Shanghai performers and their managers pay attention to spectacle as well: the company tours with 200 costumes in its traveling wardrobe and a typical performance has acrobats running through four to five costume changes per show.

In the course of its American tours, the company continues to add young performers. Chen herself is a former contortionist and acrobat and admitted that her background occasionally comes in handy. “Sometimes I fill in,” she said.

choover@wacotrib.com

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