“Even The Buddha Has Bad Days”
My first acrobatic teacher was Master Trainer Mr. Lu Yi. He came from Nanjing to the US in 1990 and worked both with professionals and with children at the SF School of Circus Arts, now called Circus Center. He passed in 2023. I was honored to be asked to speak at his memorial. This is what I shared:
I met Mr. Lu Yi in 1990, and was his student on and off for the next 15 years, including working with him on creating the winter performances with his youth circus. I first met him at the previous location of the Circus Center, “The Church” in Potrero Hill. I was 15 years old, I had just begun doing circus. I attended an audition and was one of three teenagers there. The rest were children ages 4-9. We lined up and did forward rolls and stood in handstands against the wall, then a sweet man wearing thick glasses took my arm and raised it above my head looking at the line from my wrist to my waist, he spoke in Chinese to his colleague and then went on to the next student. We all were accepted and became the first set of Mr Lu Yi’s SF students.
We practiced from 4-6 everyday after school at “the church”, the girls wore white tights with a red leotard over the leggings and the boys got to wear black sweat pants and a red t-shirt. We did headstands all together in a line - tuck, straddle , pike , we jumped on and off of chairs, we tried to hold handstands against the wall for one minute, then lined up for the one on one handstand spotting. My Lu Yi spoke very little English, so we all learned the essentials. “Little nano” , “better” “push!!!” “Lift!” There wasn’t a lot of discussion, but we all knew what he wanted from us. Try hard, try again, don’t give up. Commit.
I was 15 in a room of elementary school aged children so I was one of the biggest people in the room, so Mr Lu Yi trained me to be a porter, a bottom mount, which worked great while being the base for three highs or even larger pyramids with fellow young circus class students, but sure made people do a double take when I arrived at my first professional job. They asked me what tricks I was training and I said holding up a three high. I was one of the smallest people in the cast. Even if Mr Lu Yi’s vision for me didn’t pay off for that first job, it did work in my favor when I based Jeff Raz in a two high for my Ecole National de Cirque audition.
I have had the tremendous fortune to work with a lot of great circus teachers from all around the world. Mr Lu Yi was my first non American / foreign circus teacher. When I reflect on what was special about him, besides his inconceivable level of circus skill, it is the way that he was patient, kind and even tempered. I was not especially talented when it came to tumbling or handstands, but he saw that I was determined and he always worked respectfully with me. In the midst of spotting many, many handstands throughout the day, he would still take the time to say “getting better, getting stronger the Beth!” He took me aside one day, holding my arm very tightly…. He looked me in the eyes and pointed his finger at me, and said, “You are not stupid, you are not lazy, “he said, “You have a physical problem.” Meaning that because my arm line isn’t straight my handstand would always take a lot of work.
People talk a lot about Mr Lu Yi’s ability to train high level tricks, and he also knew how to work with people’s spirits and to keep them motivated. He taught a lot of people who never went on to perform on the stage and the time they spent together is still very meaningful. Through teaching us acrobatics he taught us to confront our limits and to accept ourselves, both when we surpassed our limits but also when we didn’t.
They say that the sign of a good teacher is when the student hears the teacher’s advice without the teacher saying it, when we hear their voice in our heads. Mr Lu Yi said some of the best things, the things that I hear myself saying to myself, the things that I will often say to other students or friends with affection. I was procrastinating writing this and in my mind, I heard him saying “Don’t be lazy”.
Once on a particularly difficult day of practice when I was losing heart he said to me, “Even the Buddha have bad days”. I still say that all the time to myself and to others….. There are so many, and maybe your favorites are coming to mind for you —
Another classic Lu Yi was, “decorator muscles”, the phrase he used to describe people with big muscles who are not actually strong. Or when doing pyramids, he said, “this is a person, not mountain” to say climb up with care. And, of course there’s “training is bitter”. Although I always liked to add “training is bitter sweet”…
In the economy of the heart gratitude is the greatest resource, I am so grateful when those sayings come to my mind because for me this is how Mr Lu Yi lives on and I like to hope that this is how I spread the great skill that he shared with me and his powerful spirit and commitment to acrobatics. I feel so rich for having known him and for being his student.
I will end with another one of my favorite Mr Lu Yi truisms, “No one can against the old”.