Shanghai Ballet brings tales of love to Virginia stage

A performance of The Butterfly Lovers, based on one of China's best-known love legends, brought a centuries-old story to an American stage on Saturday through the language of 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, on Saturday evening.

The company presented The Butterfly Lovers on Nov 7 and returned the following afternoon with Giselle, a classic of Romantic ballet. The two performances were part of the company's fifth tour of the United States, featuring a Chinese original production alongside a Western classic.

Choreographed by the company's artistic director, Xin Lili, The Butterfly Lovers tells the tragic love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.

Set to music by Xu Jianqiang and incorporating themes from the well-known Chinese violin concerto of the same name, the ballet follows the couple from their days studying together to their separation. It features Zhu's resistance to an arranged marriage and the couple's eventual transformation into butterflies.

The ballet opens with Liang and Zhu studying together, their growing bond expressed through a series of duets. The mood changes as the two part ways and Zhu later struggles against an arranged marriage. The story ends with the lovers transformed into butterflies, a motif reflected in the large butterfly backdrop behind the dancers at the curtain call.

Charlotte, a student who said she was a sophomore, was particularly impressed by the dancers' leaps. "I really 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 students who are hearing impaired, told China Daily that she was equally impressed by the dancers' technical skills and coordination. "The dancers are fabulous," she said. "I guess I would just say their technique and their ability to dance together so perfectly."

Boatwright also noticed the Chinese elements in the production, particularly the costumes and makeup. Asked whether she liked those elements, she said, "Yes, yes, it lends 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, offered a different test of the dancers' abilities.

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 before Saturday's performance, offering audiences background on the company and its work.

The Shanghai Ballet gave the first performance of its latest US tour on Oct 16. The 31-day trip takes the company through 13 cities in eight states, with The Butterfly Lovers and Giselle performed at different stops. The tour also includes master classes and other activities that bring the dancers into contact with 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, Coppélia and Swan Lake to American audiences.

Xin said that the tour has given the company's younger dancers an opportunity to build their stamina, refine their stage performances and experience how audiences from different cultural backgrounds respond to their work.

For American audiences unfamiliar with the Chinese legend, The Butterfly Lovers nevertheless offered a recognizable story of love and separation. Both 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 sort of transcends culture."