The Ballet Comes to Dalian!

One random Tuesday in listening class, my teacher told us that a ballet was coming that night to the school auditorium to give a free performance.  Every so often I hear about Beijing opera (京剧) events but nothing nearly as cool as a ballet.  After class that day, Marianna and I walked over to the auditorium to try and score some free tickets.  Unfortunately we found out that you had to get vouchers from a different building and those were all given away...

The great news is that once they opened the doors, we walked right through those doors and found us some very nice (free) balcony seats with a clear view of the stage.  Little did I realize that I was going to be treated with a performance from the professional Liaoning Ballet Company doing numbers from Swan Lake, Don Quixote, and even a few Chinese-minority style ballet numbers.

                                       

It was such an unexpected treat and qualifies as one of the highlights of the year.  Although the auditorium was poorly ventilated and filled beyond capacity, once the red curtains were drawn everyone fell silent and focused on the figures below.  The Ballet Company gave brilliant performances one after the other, including an all male rock-inspired, strobe light number.  The girls went crazy for that one...

                               

You would go crazy too if you were there!

Ballet is not nearly as popular in China as it is back in the US or Europe but I was pleasantly surprised to see so many people show up at this fine arts event.  I particularly enjoyed this ballet performance because it was a mix of the East and West, including classic numbers like Swan Lake along with Chinese pieces I had never seen before.  In the minority pieces, the ballerinas danced in long, silky pants while twirling Chinese fans around their fingers.  They looked so elegant and beautiful; it was hard to keep my eyes off the ever-unfolding visual spectacle.  After the show, I vowed to myself that I would continue attending these events as much as possible before I left.  So far I've only added the Vagina Monologues to that list but I still have about a month left to take advantage of these!

After weeks of gloom, Dalian finally has Sunshine :),

Jac