In the dim light, a woman and a man meet via the diabolos, or the Chinese yo-yo, in an infinite and closed space.

With grace and dexterity, they spin the diabolos rapidly, twirling it round and round their bodies.

The diabolos float in the air around them, sometimes hovering upright with the strings horizontal. They alternately release and catch the diabolos as their sticks fly, and they smoothly transfer the yo-yos to the other hand.

Their bodies and their prop flow together along with the musical beats, making it seem that the performers and their diabolos are one.

The show, presented by Petronella v Zerboni from Germany and her Swiss partner, Roman Muller, has been seen as probably the most unique among the variety of programs during the ongoing 10th Wuqiao International Circus Festival.

The festival, which raised its curtain over the weekend, will continue through Sunday in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province.

"The diabolo was invented long ago in China," said Zerboni, "and it's a pleasure to perform the traditional Chinese instrument back in China."

According to Huang Guoqing, a Chinese acrobatic expert, diabolo is a traditional Chinese acrobatic feat and has a history of over 1,000 years.

As early as the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Chinese began to introduce the Chinese yo-yo to the world as they joined the international circus world and made a living overseas. They taught Chinese traditional circus acts like diabolo to foreigners.

Because the Chinese audience is familiar with the Chinese-style diabolo show, they may be totally surprised by the innovative performance of Zerboni, 29, and Muller, 33, from their performing group called the "Duo Tr'espace."

"Their program creates a light atmosphere for the audience," said acrobatic expert Huang. "It's different from the Chinese."

When Zerboni and Muller started to learn how to do tricks using the diabolo in Germany, it was not the Chinese style but the European one, Zerboni said.

In their opinion, Chinese have a very special way of whirling and twirling the diabolo. The players "mostly throw the diabolo up and do acrobatics, and then catch," Zerboni said.

Besides, the Chinese often perform it in a large group of 10 to 15 performers, with a lot of exchanges of diabolos among them.

For Zerboni and Muller, the Chinese style is a mixture of "acrobatics and diabolo," but in Europe, "there are many acts of just diabolo," Zerboni said.

And that's probably the greatest difference, she said. "If people don't do acrobatics, they have to do more with the diabolo," she explained, so that the audience can see "many, many tricks."

But for their own show, she said they are "basically jugglers."

"We do juggling plus a little bit of movement like dance," she said.

After watching their performance, Huang, who has been working in the circus field for 30 years, thinks highly of their show.

He said Zerboni and Muller's diabolo performance captures the essence of the circus, that is, "the human control of objects."

The genuine way to play diabolo should be exactly like what they do, Huang emphasized.

Unlike the two European artists, he said, the Chinese acrobats sometimes do not put the diabolo at the forefront of their performance.

"They (Europeans) have learned the characteristics of the diabolo, but we don't," he said.

Chinese players usually don't have a good command of props and movements, Huang said.

They add quite a number of acrobatic skills to the show, which often are not closely related to the diabolo itself.

"To some degree, it leads to the uniformity of Chinese acrobatics shows," Huang said.

However, Chinese diabolo playing does have its own strength.

"Every coin has two sides," Zerboni said.

For her, some typical Chinese tricks like tossing the diabolo in the manner of traditional Chinese opera are impressive, and she thinks "no one in Europe can do the same."

The teamwork in the Chinese style of doing diabolo tricks is also powerful.

"If 20 people do the same thing, it's impressive and it's very hard," Zerboni said.

Judging which style is better does not make any real sense, Zerboni said.

What's important for Zerboni and Muller is the difference between the two styles. "For us, the difference is interesting," Zerboni said.

They are eager to know how the Chinese audience will respond to their premiere show in China, and anticipate meeting some top Chinese diabolo performers in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province, next month.

Since their diabolo show has some solid moves, Huang predicted that "through communication, Chinese diabolo players will soon pick up their good points from these two European artists, and thus the Chinese style gets enriched."

(China Daily November 2, 2005)