East Meets West
By Eve Zibart
Friday,
IT IS one of the world's great cultures; more accurately, it is many of
the world's great cultures.
the globe, a nation of more than 50 ethnic peoples and 1,500 dialects --
more than 100 languages in the
traditional arts, costumes, music and metaphors embrace an almost
inconceivable variety. Even in the age of video and satellite television,
much of Chinese art remains mysterious to American audiences, even as its
quality, particularly of its dance and multimedia art, is reaching new
heights.
But not here. Throughout October, an unprecedented number of
finest performers and visionaries, nearly 900 in all, will be on stage at
the
featuring an extraordinary lineup of the most acclaimed dancers,
musicians, actors, acrobats and puppeteers, is the single largest
celebration of Chinese performing arts ever hosted by a single
institution, even in
Center Vice President Alicia Adams, the schedule includes eight premieres
and more than a dozen free shows as well as an open-air marketplace,
exhibits and family activities, and a glimpse of what has been described
as "the eighth wonder of the world," the terra cotta warriors of Emperor
Qin Shihuang.
I
traveled to
warriors but several of the country's performing companies; the following
"postcards" from some of the cities I visited were taken from my journals
of the trip.
In
conjunction with the festival,
arrange appearances in other
extensive tours -- because she believes that as the nation's capital of
performing arts, the
For Festival of China schedule details and dates, see Page 36. Tickets for
the performances, where needed, are available at the
office, by phone at 202-467-4600 or online at
http://kennedy-center.org/china .
The performances by the China National Peking Opera Company and the
Beijing
People's
interpreted for visually or hearing-impaired patrons. Two weeks' notice is
requested to arrange for the aids, but the
accommodate those with less time; call 202-416-8727.
to gather around a bank of makeup tables and lighted mirrors. Some are
already in costume, with tissue folded carefully around the neck and
sleeves to prevent the heavy silks and brocades (they are quite elaborate)
from being smeared. Others wear robes or what looks like surgical scrubs.
Their hair is slicked back, some braided, some under nets or skullcaps,
and many have plucked not only their eyebrows but their hairlines to make
their foreheads look higher and more imperious. They can increase the size
of their eyes that way as well, creating dramatic brows and carrying the
black eyeliner far out to the sides.
Many of the actors start with a base of white or even pale pink, expertly
and evenly sponged over the entire face. Typically, the eyelids and up
under the brows are shadowed in dark rose or red, and red dots painted
into the curve of the nose to emphasize the corner of the eye. The lips
are shaped into a bright, scarlet moue. The most stylized paintings may
have flames of red and gold and black or loopy clown eyes. All this the
actors draw freehanded and immaculately.
The
festival kicks off with a salute to
mostly free and family-friendly offerings including demonstrations of face
painting in the
kite-making, seal-carving and calligraphy, plus an open-air market with
handicrafts and mementos. The Inner Mongolian Chorus will make its first
appearance in the
on the Millennium Stage. Musical prodigies from Shenzhen, pianists He
Qizhen, Zuo Zhang and Zhang Haochen, all younger than 18, will perform two
classical programs, including one with 97 other young pianists (with a
little help from National Symphony Orchestra conductor Leonard Slatkin, in
a program titled "100 Pianos").
Throughout
the festival, the
out, with contemporary arts and even a fashion exhibition, "The New China
Chic." For nearly a fortnight, the Terrace Gallery will become both a
showcase and a shop featuring clothing and accessories by 16 prominent
Chinese
or Chinese American designers, including Vivienne Tam,
Tang, Jeffrey Chow, Anna Sui and Vera Wang.
The entire building will be decorated by Tim Yip , Oscar-winning art
director of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," with huge hanging banners
along the
in the auspicious color of red. Contemporary sculptures by Chinese
artists, both traditional and avant-garde, will be installed throughout
the center and the grounds. Eight contemporary Chinese films will be
screened (free tickets required), and photographic exhibits
of
and
SHANGHAI -- The Shanghai Acrobats are a lively and self-possessed troupe
that takes to somersaulting through hoops and vaulting over one another in
simultaneous waves from both sides of the stage, slipping through with
seemingly effortless ease and extreme good humor. The pyramids of men and
boys, the towers of hats tossed and piled atop the jugglers' heads like
the "500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins," the girls with those preternatural
hip joints that seem to rotate 360 degrees -- no longer unfamiliar to
Americans, perhaps, but breathtakingly exact.
The China National Acrobatic Troupe was founded more than 50 years ago,
and its repertory includes more than 100 programs -- acrobatics, aerial
acts, farce, magic and vocal imitations. The performances (free but
tickets required) feature plate spinning, hoop diving, umbrella juggling
and so on.
But no celebration of Chinese culture could be considered properly
inaugurated, or propitious, without a display of fireworks, that beautiful
and characteristically fleeting art. On Saturday night, pyrotechnic
choreographer Cai Guo-Qiang will unleash a program created specifically
for the
displays from nine barges. Called "Tornado," it will feature visions of
flying fire dragons and kites, and the climactic whirlwind reaching up to
the sky should be visible for quite a distance.
vigilant in their graves and staring with a peculiar despair into
eternity. There are 8,000 or so figures -- archers, foot soldiers,
charioteers and horses, officers, etc. -- many still in tiny pieces
awaiting reconstruction. They rise in waves from the earth, some rows
fully exposed, some still buried up to their knees, others fallen onto the
backs of their comrades. The horses, too, some rearing, some seeming to be
struggling to get their legs free of the muck. There were about four major
facial molds for the heads, and they were painted to look more
individualistic -- research suggests there were at least 17 colors -- but
it's all faded off, and oddly it's just that blank-eyed expression that's
the eeriest part. Each statue weighs between 440 and 680 pounds; the legs
are solid but the bodies are hollow, which helps (or did help) keep them
upright. Not only that, but according to scientists, they must have been
baked at something like 800 degrees, nobody is quite sure how. They're
also larger than life-size, so they would have been quite intimidating to
even a spiritual opponent.
Qin Shihuang, the emperor who had them constructed, became a prince at 13
and immediately began assembling two armies, one for this world and
another for the next. He succeeded in overthrowing his seven rivals and
uniting the country and also ordered the construction of the Great Wall,
his country's most famous landmark. But two years after Qin's death, a
peasant uprising set fire to his tomb complex. It burned underground for
three months, collapsing the timbers that held up the ceiling. It
gradually vanished and was rediscovered only about 30 years ago by a
farmer who brought up some fragments while digging a well.
Although his tomb was nearly forgotten, Qin -- pronounced "Chin" -- left
another mark on history: He gave his name to the nation of
Three of the Qin statues, two soldiers and one of the great horses will be
on display in the North Gallery throughout the festival. The impact of
their discovery has been dramatic, not only in sheer archaeological and
artistic terms, but as symbols of a great imperial vision of the nation
from more than 20 centuries ago. They have become icons of the culture and
popular subjects for theatrical works, including two rather different
pieces here.
The Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble , headed by Artistic Director Doudou
Huang,
arguably
"Symbols
of
game similar to backgammon) and martial arts as well as the terra cotta
warriors. Another piece on the program, "Bronze Bell Music and Dance: Six
Dance Imageries of Zhou Dynasty," is set to a score by composer Tan Dun,
inspired by the ancient imperial chimes. Tan is best known here for the
Oscar-winning score to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and the operas
"Marco Polo" and "Peony Pavilion."
The
Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra , making its
perform "Fantasia on Terra Cotta Warriors," set to a three-movement piece
by Peng Xiuwen, the renowned 20th-century Chinese composer. Tan Dun's work
is represented here, too, with "Fire Ritual."
In fact, Tan's music runs like a motif throughout the festival: The
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra has Tan'smultimedia piece called "The Map,
Concerto for Cello, Video and Orchestra" on its program, and the Ying
Quartet -- siblings Janet, David, Timothy and Phillip -- will perform
Tan's "Three of Eight Colors" as part of what it calls a "dim sum" tasting
menu of small Chinese musical delights. A Tan composition is even on the
program of the Hong Kong Festival of 250 Drums on Oct. 8.
of puppetry. It's a personal favorite -- she has several puppets on her
office wall -- and she had shadow puppetry on her short list from the
beginning. However, high-level puppet companies, like the opera troupes,
often perform only beloved vignettes or excerpts from famous works,
snatches that might not be easily understood by American audiences. So
create a piece for the Shaanxi Folk Art Theater to premiere at the
festival. "
and multimedia effects to evoke the nation at three stages: during the
imperial splendor of the Tang Dynasty, in the struggle to survive during
World War II and now in the midst of the country's building boom and
luxury tourist development. Shaanxi Folk Art Theater will also present a
more traditional short-scene program of folk tales aimed at younger
audiences, such as "The Crane and the Turtle" and "The Bear and the
Flowers."
The
1957 classic play by Lao She, "Teahouse" -- performed by the
People's
employs the vignette tradition to suggest cultural changes. Set in
the teahouse -- a gathering place that might be society hall, gambling
den, political hangout, formal business office and sometimes brothel all
rolled into one -- in three crucial periods: the 1898 coup d'etat by the
Qing (Manchu) Dynasty, which embarked on a harsh modernization policy; the
1918 chaos of the warlord regimes; and 1947, after the Japanese occupation
of
SHANGHAI -- The dancers' costumes had extraordinarily long sleeves made of
chiffon that they unroll and whirl in great loops like gymnasts' ribbons
(and surely were the source of those routines) before recovering them into
their bodies. Actually, the sleeves don't "unroll" so much as they seem to
launch themselves from the dancers' wrists, becoming banners, tidal waves,
clouds, even weapons.
"Dance
in
Adams, and she has assembled a showcase of the nation's most electrifying
troupes, classical and contemporary. Many are both in one: In fact, one of
the festival's most sought-after tickets has to be the National Ballet of
full-length ballet created by Zhang Yimou, director of the critically
acclaimed film of the same title (and also of "Hero" and "House of Flying
Daggers"), which folds the pas de deux convention in with elements of folk
dance, classical Chinese opera and acrobatics. The score, by Tan Dun's old
classmate, Chen Qigang, and the dancers' technique have been widely
admired.
The National Ballet's repertory nights offer a blend of traditional,
modern and capital-R Romantic pieces: "The
Chengzong's "Yellow River Concerto"; a duet set to a Richard Strauss song;
Fei Bo's "Remembrance," a new work that won the choreography prize at the
2005
Here again is a mini-motif: The "Yellow River Concerto" is often called
a concerto during the Cultural Revolution. It is also being performed as a
concert piece by the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra , along with a piece
celebrating the different characteristics of women composed also by Chen
Qigang.
Here is another: Both the Shen Wei Dance Arts, a New York-based troupe
known for an almost brazen tendency to combine traditional Chinese dance
with formalized opera, theater, even the visual arts, and
the
Modern Dance Company have choreographed works to Stravinsky's "Rite of
Spring." The New York Times has called Shen Wei's choreography "something
to write home about in the dance world," praising his "painterly,
mathematical and idiosyncratic" vision. (The other piece in the program is
a stately, meditative one called "Folding," inspired by the drapery of
costumes set to the sounds of Tibetan Buddhist flutes and Tavener's "Last
Sleep of the Virgin.")
The Bejing Modern Dance Company's production, an avant-garde work called
"All River Red," by husband-and-wife choreographers Li Hanzhong and Ma Bo,
portrays the violent clash of conformity and radicalism. It's part of a
three-company program titled "Trilogy of Modern Dance," also showcasing
the Guangdong Modern Dance Company and the City Contemporary Dance Company
of
beautiful and shrewd lower-level concubine who slept with one emperor and
then his son when he ascended to the throne, eventually marrying him and
replacing the former empress. After her husband suffered a stroke, she
took effective control, forming a secret police squad and eliminating her
enemies. When her husband died, she put two of her more malleable children
on the throne as puppet rulers but seven years later claimed it in her own
right and duly acquired, as one temple guide put it, "hundreds of male
concubines and boy toys."
Some historians point to Wu's reign (from 690 to 705) as a time when women
were given unprecedented freedom and respect, the military was downsized
and the scholarly class encouraged. She raised Buddhism to a favored place
and presided over the building of many beautiful temples and shrines.
Finally -- at age 80 --she retired in favor of her third son.
Strong women, especially in noble and often martial situations, are a
common subject in Chinese theater. One of the most popular scenes is that
of the warrior maiden who faces down many times her number of soldiers,
using fantastical acrobatics and elaborate choreography to turn aside
their spears and swords -- a theme familiar from Zhang Yimou's
magical-realism movies. The China National Peking Opera Company ,
returning to the
of the Yang Family," inspired by the history of the Northern Song Dynasty
in the 10th century. According to the play, She Taijun, the centenarian
dowager head of a family reduced to widows, leads her female army to
avenge the death of her son. Their military maneuvering explodes into an
acrobatic display straight out of Yimou.
A more up-to-date group of female warriors, in a musical sense, is Red
Poppy , an all-women percussion band that plays eclectic arrangements of
Chinese music on more than 40 Western and traditional Chinese instruments.
Since
1999, Red Poppy has played across
and inspired a host of out-of-the-conservatory women's groups that pop up
in trendy nightclubs from
fabulous, lined with those huge and weirdly abrupt limestone mountains,
some humpy, some sharp as molars, that jut up into the sky only a single
scanty field's distance from water's edge. Early on, the tallest peaks are
wreathed with scraps of fog like torn clouds. Men poling bamboo rafts are
dappled with the shadows of hawks soaring overhead. Water buffalo, ducks
and geese, skinny yellow dogs and occasionally horses gaze without
interest as boats go by; and every once in a while herds of mountain goats
appear on the sheerest of slopes.
Not
only is the pen an instrument of representational art in
with the great watercolor scrolls of mountains and natural marvels; it
also turned writing into an art -- or rather several, as there were quite
distinct styles, some pared down and almost palpably curt, some ornate and
mannered, that were used for official correspondence or meditation in
different eras.
Wang Xizhi, considered the greatest calligrapher in history, created a
flowing, cursive style used for poetry that itself became a discipline.
His preface to a 4th-century collection of poetry was considered so
beautiful by the Tang Emperor Tai Zong that he ordered the original buried
with him. Professor Sun Jinbgo of the
preface is called. It, and a second mural of musicians, are being
presented to the
government in recognition of the festival. They are on display in the new
China Lounge on the box tier of the Eisenhower Theater.
Eve
Zibart's mother, a professional dancer, was born in
American parents.