MORE INFORMATION
The Barishnikov chinese dancer who was formerly a dancer
For those interested in the ballet, both the title The red detachment of women as the own grouping National Ballet of China (or Ballet Central: BNCh) are something and much more than an exotic a boutade orientalist or what we called before a chinoiserie of which both liked our Carlos III, and today they are only prints of wallpaper or apparent vases celadon price of gold. Elegant, technically impeccable, refined in its margins, stylistic and with a discipline to the test of watchmaking, the company owner of the asian giant comes for the first time to Madrid and opens luxuriously in the Theatres of the Canal at the 33rd edition of the International Festival Madrid en Danza.
it Is a success from every point of view that the whole debut with the reconstruction of this work from the dark and terrible times of socialist realism, and his vulgar sequel stalinist version-slanting eyes, time to not forget, and yes to learn that you should never go back; the ballet continues to be a cameo that should be taken with distance, irony and a lot of breeching, but it is history: preserve it, almost a duty.
But situemos the ballet itself, in its context right. The detachment… was premiered at the new opera of Beijing (the great theatre had been inaugurated in 1959) on 1 October 1964 starring Pai-Shuhiang and Liu Chingtang with a hit that forced them to extend the season of functions for almost a month. Then, as now, the BNCh was run by a woman, Jiang Zuhui (shortly after he was represaliada by the Cultural Revolution Maoist), and remained more than two years in internment camps). This ballet advocated the own carnage of the Cultural Revolution, which officially began in 1966 and lasted almost 10 years. The detachment… is the plastic synthesis of a current and previous titles, like the flower of The lotus, The beautiful little fish, Qu Yuan, or The legend of princess Wencheng. In all there is a coexistence between elements of opera and dance traditional ancient chinese and the technique Taraftarium of ballet west.
Such was the triumph of The detachment…, that are published, year after year, the script and the binder of sheet music in his reduction for piano, a popularity unusual. The heroine, Wu Ching-hua (or Qionghua in another discharge system of ideographs) was in postage stamps, porcelains and packaging of soaps with the scent of roses. How and where you get the idea? A film awarded at the festival in Moscow in 1964, and a ballet of soviet realism: The red poppy (1927), many times replacement, and versioning both in Moscow and in Leningrad. The chinese ballet is born of the soviet, but with its own characterization. They went from there characters popular today in the West as Li Cunxin (Mao’s last dancer) or Jin Xing (excoronel of the Red Army and today she is a choreographer and transsexual success). This piece with red flags, hammer-and-sickles, beats International, and other obstacles, is a testimony to aesthetic, political, and social importance. The unquestionable quality of this replacement gives meaning to the conservation and understand the success they had in New York in 2015, with saw our debut in the Lincoln Center.
When one opens the essay by the great theorist, historian, and master Ou Jian-Ping the first thing you see every page is a scene from the tavern of the ballet Don Quixote with a beautiful and brand new Feng Ying in the center; she is currently the artistic director of the BNCh and responsible of this fruitful endeavour. She also participated in the ballet The red lantern, Jian Ximu, repeating the magic formula of The detachment… Who we saw dance and be an elegant swan or a sparkling Quiteria, now it is ratified as an efficient director.
the legend Says that when Mao Zedong arrived in Moscow for the first time in 1949, one of the few courtesies that Stalin had with the chinese leader was to take him to the Bolshoi Theatre to see swan lake, and Mao (with his wife, the infamous Jiang Quing) said in chorus: “we Want this in Beijing”. So they traveled to China Piotr Andreievich Gúsev in 1956, where he remained until 1960, and left the signal of the ballet, acrobatic, and also Sulamif Messerer (aunt of Maya Plisetskaia, and a protagonist who embodied in the Bolshoi Tao-Hoa, The red poppy); Sulamif was to China to be punished for being jewish, but was an excellent teacher and let her know in the school pekinesa. All of this is today subtly within this company, which can be seen in the Theatres of the Channel until tomorrow, Friday 7th.
