The Butterfly Lovers, based on one of China's best-known romance legends, brought a centuries-old story to an American stage through ballet.
Audience members rose to their feet in applause as dancers from the Shanghai Ballet took their bows at George Mason University's Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Virginia.
The company presented The Butterfly Lovers on Nov 7 and returned the following afternoon with Giselle, a romantic classic. The two performances were part of the company's fifth US tour, featuring an original Chinese production alongside a Western classic.
Choreographed by the company's artistic director, Xin Lili, The Butterfly Lovers tells the tragic romance of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.
The ballet is set to music by Xu Jianqiang and incorporates themes from the well-known eponymous Chinese violin concerto. It follows the couple's relationship from beginning to separation to transformation.
The ballet opens with Liang and Zhu studying together, a series of duets expressing their growing bond. The mood changes as the two part ways, and Zhu later struggles against an arranged marriage. The story ends with the lovers transforming into butterflies, a motif reflected in the large butterfly backdrop behind the dancers at the curtain call.
Charlotte, a sophomore, was particularly impressed by the dancers' movements. "I liked all the leaps. They were really impressive," she told China Daily. Asked how the performance differed from American or European ballet, she said she found it more detailed.
Donna Boatwright, a teacher who works with hearing-impaired students, told China Daily that she was equally impressed by the dancers' technical skills and coordination. "The dancers are fabulous," she said. "I would say I'm most impressed by their technique and ability to dance together so perfectly."
Boatwright also noticed the production's Chinese elements, particularly the costumes and makeup. Asked what she thought of those elements, she said, "They lend to the overall story."
The following afternoon, the company performed Giselle, a 19th-century ballet about a young woman whose love ends in tragedy. The production, adapted by Xin from the classical choreography of Marius Petipa, tested the dancers' abilities differently than in The Butterfly Lovers.
The first act featured lively village dances and scenes between Giselle and her lover. In the second act, dancers dressed in white moved across the stage in rows and groups, keeping their steps and turns closely synchronized. The contrast between the two acts showed the company's strength in both solo and ensemble dancing.
Marcus Ellison, a government contractor, took his 7-year-old daughter, who is taking dance lessons, to the show. He said he was particularly impressed by the precision of the ensemble dancing in the second act.
"What impressed me most was how effortlessly they seemed to move together. Every movement was so precise, yet the whole performance felt incredibly graceful," he told China Daily.
The Fairfax performances were also accompanied by pre-performance discussions at the university's Center for the Arts.
Matthew Powell, a professor at George Mason University's School of Dance, moderated a discussion with Xin, offering audiences background on the company and its work.
The Shanghai Ballet gave its latest US tour's first performance on Oct 16. The 31-day trip takes the company through 13 cities in eight states, performing The Butterfly Lovers and Giselle at each stop. The tour also includes master classes and other activities that bring the dancers into local communities.
It is the company's first US tour in six years. Since its first visit in 2002, the Shanghai Ballet has staged nearly 100 performances in the United States, bringing productions including The White-Haired Girl, Coppelia and Swan Lake to American audiences.
Xin said the tour has given the company's younger dancers a chance to build stamina, refine their stage performances, and see how audiences from different cultural backgrounds respond to their work.
For American audiences unfamiliar with the Chinese legend, The Butterfly Lovers still offered a resonant story of love and separation. Charlotte and Boatwright independently drew comparisons with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
"It seems very similar to Romeo and Juliet," Boatwright said. "I think that type of star-crossed lovers story transcends culture."
Contact the writer at yifanxu@chinadailyusa.com
