Tang Yin ballet gets first foreign staging

WARSAW - Invited by the 26th Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, China's Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe performed its original ballet Tang Yin in Poland on Monday, giving the audience a taste of ballet with Chinese artistic elements.

Tang Yin is about the life of the eponymous protagonist, a talented and romantic scholar who was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, about 500 years ago during China's Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

This ballet applies freehand brushwork to the stage dressing, such as shadows on the wall and a flower beside a pillow, to strengthen its aesthetic effect. It also uses the music of Arvo Part, an Estonian composer, and combines traditional and modern dances.

Li Ying, artistic director of the Suzhou Ballet Theater, said she was very pleased that the troupe was invited to perform in Poland during the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival. "It is a matter of a great significance to us, a young ballet group formed 12 years ago," she adds.

"Through the performance, we try to present oriental beauty to the audience in Europe, in the hope that the audience will enjoy Chinese culture," Li says.

Liu Guangyuan, Chinese ambassador to Poland, says this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Poland. The visit by the Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe has demonstrated the close cooperation between the two countries in the field of art.

The Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe is currently on a 12-day tour in Latvia and Poland. This also marks the first time that Tang Yin has been performed abroad. In 2015, at the invitation of the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, the Suzhou troupe visited Poland and performed the ballet, Carmen.

Founded in 2007, the Suzhou Ballet Theater is the only professional ballet troupe in Jiangsu province and the sixth in China.