Liaoning Ballet’s Performance Tour of Australia and New Zealand

The Liaoning Ballet of China, sent by the CPAFFC, gave 4 performances in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from October 27 to November 11, 2006 at the invitation of 3CW Chinese Radio of Australia and Asia Pacific Culture Connection Centre of New Zealand.

Founded in 1980, the Liaoning Ballet has created ballet works full of Chinese features and achieved eye-catching achievement on its way to establish the Chinese school of ballet. In the 26 years since its founding, it has performed world ballet classics including Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote and Nutcracker, and created and staged Chinese ballet such as The Butterfly Lovers, Gada Meilin, The Peacock’s Gallbladder, and modern ballet The Last Emperor. Its ballet dancers have won prizes in international ballet competitions.

The cast was strong including such first-grade national actors and actresses as Lu Meng, Jiao Yang, Xiao Yuanyuan, Liu Shuang, and Zhao Yuan, all prize winners in international ballet competitions. The programme, specially arranged for the local audience, included the best episodes of various ballets with short modern dances in between, presenting a combination of long and short, classical and modern, and foreign and Chinese items. Included in the programme were foreign classics like Raymonda and Napolitaine, and Chinese ballet The Moon over the SecondSpring and The Kingdom and the Beauty with rich national features.

The well-prepared programme and the excellent performance won warm acclaim from the audience. Most of the overseas audience did not know much about Chinese ballet. Those present at the performance were overwhelmed with surprise. Especially when Jiao Yang, Lu Meng and other leading dancers performed on the stage, warm applause rose from the audience time and again. Their light jumps, and the graceful turns, the Peking Opera masks and music as well as the red umbrellas used in The Moon over the Second Spring brought warm response from the audience. One of the audience said, he felt very happy after watching the performance, because Chinese ballet works took up about half of the whole programme. The superb skills demonstrated by the ballet dancers revealed the aesthetic interest of the Chinese nation. The performance was intoxicating.

3CW Chinese Radio of Australia and Asia Pacific Culture Connection Centre of New Zealand are cultural organizations set up by overseas Chinese in recent years. Despite pressing time, the host organizations, through careful preparations and by mobilizing the Chinese community, successfully arranged four performances with a total audience of 5,000.

Apart from the support given by the Chinese community, the Liaoning Ballet also received care and assistance from the Chinese Consulates General, the local governments and the friendship-with-China organizations of the places they visited. In New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark, Chinese Consul General in Auckland Ma Chongren, Auckland Regional Council Chairman Michael Lee and Chinese Association of New Zealand President Steven Wong sent messages of congratulations. In her message, Prime Minister Clark said: “As Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage I am very aware of how cultural events help build relationships between nations.” She expressed her welcome and best wishes to the Liaoning Ballet’s performance tour. In Australia, staff of the Chinese Consulates General in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne all offered various help.

The Liaoning Ballet conducted exchanges with local art organizations in spare-time during its visit in the two countries. In Auckland, the children of a local ballet school joined the performance with a modern dance Circle of Life. After the performance, they had cordial discussions with the members of the Liaoning Ballet, expressing their admiration of the high attainment of the Chinese dancers and their desire to study ballet in China in the future.

In Melbourne, the Liaoning Ballet visited two ballet schools. They sat in on the class. An Australian teacher also gave them a dance class. Mrs. Christine Walsh-Ella, director of the Australian Conservatoire of Ballet who had performed in China with the Central Ballet of China in 1987 and visited the Liaoning Ballet, was very happy at the reunion. She was very excited after watching the performance with her husband. She said the performing skills of the Liaoning Ballet were excellent.

The Liaoning Ballet’s performance tour was a success. It received praises and favourable comments from various circles of Australia and New Zealand and played a positive role in enhancing friendly relations and mutual understanding between China and these two countries. The visit was a fruitful cultural exchange.