Creating the Ballet of China

Aug 14th, 2008 | By Blog Editor | Category: "This Season" Features & Other Spotlights, Adult Dancers

Although the world is focused right now on the 2008 Olympic Games in China, the dancers of the National Ballet of China (NBC), although less known than some Olympic athletes, are performing feats of physical and artistic strength that will have lasting impact in their country.

Creativity in a History of Control

The NBC is the only national ballet company in China. Formed in 1959, the troupe and their classical ballet training owe almost entirely to Russian ballet masters like Pyotr Gusev. All of the NBC’s dancers come from the Beijing Dance Academy (1, 2).

(source: 2003 Ministry of Culture, P.R.China)

The NBC’s repertoire has always included classical works like Don Quixote, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty. In the past few decades, the group has added some works of contemporary ballet and modern dance (1).

But, the NBC’s repertoire has always been impacted by the views of the Chinese government. Throughout China’s Cultural Revolution (from about 1966 to 1976), theaters could stage only certain operas and ballets.

The Red Detachment of Women is one of the ballets that the Chinese government allowed. In this ballet, a peasant girl finds freedom and success by joining the Communist Party. The NBC still performs the ballet today (2).

Reforming China’s Repertoire

But, the NBC’s repertoire now includes a newer work, Raise the Red Lantern. And in this new ballet, we can see some challenges to the views in older ballets like The Red Detachment of Women.

The Red Detachment of Women (source: 2003 Ministry of Culture, P.R.China)

Raise the Red Lantern is based on the 1991 film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou. Yimou–who based his film on the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong–adapted his work for the stage in 2001 (2).

Raise the Red Lantern tells about a young, educated Chinese girl who is forced to become the fourth wife of a wealthy landowner. As the narrative unfolds, the girl, Songlian, faces competition, jealousy, and rejection within her master’s home. And, after falling in love with another man, Songlian risks her master’s punishment (2, 4, 5).

Raise the Red Lantern can be seen as a parable of the Communist Party’s control over the Chinese people. In fact, the Chinese government didn’t approve of the story when it was released as a film in 1991. But, the fact that the National Ballet of China can now produce Raise the Red Lantern shows that Chinese dancers, and Chinese artists overall, are claiming more freedoms.

Chinese Dancers Finding Freedom

By looking at the NBC’s repertoire, you can see how political influence has always impacted Chinese ballet.

The NBC’s history begins with the classic ballets: works brought into China by Russian ballet masters.

Next, the NBC produced “the model” plays: works handed down by China’s Communist Party.

But today, decades after China’s Cultural Revolution, the NBC adds modern works like Raise the Red Lantern to its repertoire: a work that comes directly from from the heart of Chinese artists.

Creating a Chinese Ballet

Raise the Red Lantern (source: 2003 Ministry of Culture, P.R.China)

In an interview with the Telegraph, the NBC’s director explained that the company must keep performing older works like The Red Detachment of Women.

“Generations know this ballet and love it,” Zhao said. “It is a brave product of this company, part of our responsibility to create our own Chinese ballet” (2).

For the NBC, creating a Chinese ballet isn’t about throwing out old history and starting all over. It’s about recognizing, and building on, the past. This sort of building is exactly what the National Ballet of China is now doing. And their work, today, may open an important new era of influence in Chinese dance and art.