Chy Mei Ling

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Hand Balancer

By Dominique Jando

Melanie Chy (2011)

Chy Mei Ling, who is also known under the Europeanization of her name, Melanie Chy, was born in Switzerland to a circus family. Her father, Fredy Chy, now a circus agent, came from a famous troupe of German acrobats of Chinese descent, the Chy Bao Guy Troupe. Her mother, Edith, was a Swiss acrobat who performed with her husband in their own Chinese acrobatics act. Mei Ling began training at age six under her father's tutelage, and developed a Chinese-style "Bowl Pagoda" balancing and contortion act, with which she won a Silver Medal at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain in Paris in 1988. She was eight years old, and she became an immediate sensation!

As she grew up, Mei Ling continued to train relentlessly, notably under the celebrated Russian acrobat Nikolai Polonik, until she eventually became one of the finest female hand balancers of her generation. She soon was in high demand in circuses and "variete" shows all over Europe; in 1995, she returned to the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain, where she was awarded the Jury's Special Prize for her original presentation as a biker, using a motorcycle as a pedestal.

In America, Chy Mei Ling became a center-ring feature with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, where she spent two seasons, in 2002 and 2003. She returned to the United States in 2005 to appear in the Big Apple Circus production of Picturesque, where she was highly praised by the press and proved an audience's favorite; she was featured a second time at the Big Apple Circus in 2011, in Dream Big. Mei Ling has also appeared in major circuses and "variete" in Europe and Asia, notably in Voyage de la vie, produced in 2011 by Mark Fisher and directed by Phil Mckinley at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.