Chinese steps of a Western art

The Shanghai Ballet Company is producing 'A Sigh of Love,' another attempt to define a distinctive Chinese ballet style
It's time to redefine Chinese ballet again and the Shanghai Ballet Company is doing so.

Ever since the first school solely dedicated to training Chinese ballet dancers opened in 1954 in Beijing, the dancers have wondered how to develop a unique ballet style that combines Chinese culture with Western ballet techniques.

The latest instance of this can be seen in the production process for the Shanghai Ballet Company's "A Sigh of Love." This production has been choreographed and created together with a contingent of French artists, mainly from L'Opera National du Rhin, (Rhin Ballet Company). It tells the tragic love story of a writer and his beautiful neighbour during the period when Shanghai was occupied by Japanese troops.

The writer dares not reveal his love to the neighbour and can only write about it in his books. Eight years later, the writer re-encounters the neighbour who has already become the mother of an 8-year-old boy. At the reunion, the writer says nothing but merely utters a sigh of love.

Chinese elements

Bertrand d'At, the director and choreographer of the Rhin Ballet Company, is responsible for creating a series of Shanghai- flavoured movements and steps for the dancers of the Shanghai Ballet Company.

Zhang Li, spokeswoman of the Shanghai Ballet Company, said, d'At would probably emphasize hand movements, as a distinctively Chinese influence feature, which also indicates the delicate beauty of the heroine (the neighbour).

"Compared to Western ballet, Chinese folk dance has more variation in its hand movements," she said.

The production team also includes French costume designer Jerome Kaplan, who designed the costumes for the 2001 ballet production "Raise the Red Lantern" by the National Ballet of China (originally called the "Central Ballet of China" ).

Kaplan's design for "Raise the Red Lantern" not only won him the approval of Zhang Yimou, director of the award-winning film, but also acclaim from the Chinese audience and ballet experts.

Kaplan said he would use earth-yellow as the basic tone of the costumes, to symbolize both the gloom and hope of the characters in the production.

"In the production 'Raise the Red Lantern,' I used Chinese red as the basic tone, to show the passion and the twisted fate of the heroine. I picked earthy-yellow after seeing a grand calligraphy exhibition at the Shanghai Museum. It is the exact colour of the ancient paper used for the calligraphies. I associate it with Shanghai," he added.

"Why should we ask a foreign ballet master to choreograph for us? Can their taste really represent the authentic Chinese elements in the production?" some local dance enthusiasts have asked.

Xin Lili, artistic director of Shanghai Ballet Company, says such doubts are groundless.

"The production tries to restore the Shanghai of the late 1930s to mid-1940s, when the city had already been impacted by Western esthetics," she said.

She said discussion and exchange between the Shanghai Ballet Company and the French artists would spark inspiration and help the Chinese dancers to better understand which elements were unique from China and needed to be emphasized in the production.

She said that before working on the project, the French artists visited almost every landmark in the city, including Duolun Road, Yuyuan Garden, the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai History Museum, to soak themselves in Shanghai's history.

"They are very serious and have spent a lot of time studying Shanghai and its history. I have confidence that we will represent a real Shanghai of that period on the stage," Xin said.

Challenging endeavour

Local dance critic Bao Han added: "I appreciate the courage of the Shanghai Ballet Company, although re-defining Chinese ballet is very challenging, they never halt in the endeavour."

Bao said such explorations had already generated two wonderful productions: "The Red Detachment of Women" by the National Ballet of China and "The White-haired Girl" by the Shanghai Ballet Company.

"The Red Detachment of Women" was the first successful full-length Chinese ballet, created in 1964, with both theme and content reflecting a very unique Chinese style.

"The piece has been hailed as a model of the successful combination of Western ballet technique with Chinese folk dancing," said Zhang.

"The dancers toiled to gracefully depict both on-point techniques and Chinese folk dance and acrobatic elements. The dancers even lived for months in military camps to learn swordplay in order to portray the soldiers vividly on stage," Bao added.

"The White Haired Girl," recognized as another Chinese ballet classic, made its debut only one year after "The Red Detachment of Women."

Composed by Yan Jinxuan, it was first performed by the Shanghai Ballet Company in 1965. Adapted from an opera of the same title, it tells the story of a girl named Xi'er who cannot stand the insults of her landlord and hides herself in the mountains, her hair turning white due to lack of salt in the diet.

Finally the girl is saved by the Eighth Route Army and is reunited with her lover Dachun.

Bao said this stage ballet makes good use of elements of Chinese folk dance, especially in the early scenes depicting Xi'er's happiness when greeting her father who comes back home on the eve of Spring Festival.

The ballet perfectly combines realism and romanticism, she added.

Creation of Chinese ballet productions slowed until "Raise the Red Lantern." Nevertheless, Chinese ballet masters and critics never gave up their search for Chinese identity through Western-born ballet, Bao noted.

(China Daily: Shanghai Star )

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