The 100-member Central Circus Troupe was originally established in the liberation zone in June 1966 with the assistance of the Hà Nội Secondary School of Circus Arts, and initially comprised a small team of acrobats aged from nine to 20 years. Fourteen of these acrobats attended a four-year training course at the Hà Nội Secondary School of Circus Arts in 1970 and others subsequently benefited from short training programmes by visiting Russian, Mongolian and Chinese experts. The troupe served to entertain Pathet Lao troops at the front until 1975, when it was relocated to Vientiane and established as a national company. The circus continued to attract large audiences in Laos throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, and during this era the company toured extensively to China, North Korea and the former Eastern Europe. At the height of the troupe's popularity in 1991 the Central Circus Arena (see below) was constructed with Soviet aid in Ban Savang, Vientiane. Unfortunately since the subsequent demise of the former Soviet Union the company has faced something of a decline in audience support and has lacked the funds to properly develop its work.