On 12 November, the National Ballet of China (NBC) performed for a large audience at the new UIC University Hall. The title of their performance was ‘Journey into Ballet’. The show was divided into four sections, with an introduction to the history of ballet, a section to demonstrate basic ballet moves, an interactive audience section and then the final performances.
The National Ballet of China (NBC)
Before the performance, UIC’s President, Prof Ng Ching-Fai, gave a warm welcome and expressed his gratitude to the NBC as well as mentioning what a huge honour it is for UIC to have them perform tonight as part of the celebration of the new campus. He also mentioned how it reflected UIC’s efforts to promote the Liberal Arts. Prof Ng talked about how he hopes that the future of Liberal Arts Education can maintain some elements of tradition as well as promote a harmonious campus culture. He finished by saying that he looks forward to the NBC’s performance and hopes it will help to enrich the experience of students in attendance.
The director of the NBC, Ms Feng Ying, began her speech by thanking UIC for the invitation and said “We want to use our art to bring beauty into your heart; I believe that our young artists and the young college students will connect with each other, and we hope our performance can be appreciated.”
President of UIC, Prof Ng Ching-Fai
The director of the NBC, Ms Feng Ying with Prof Ng
One of the NBC dancers, Ms Liu Qi, came on to the stage next to introduce ballet to the audience. She explained the history and various styles of ballet. Later on, she introduced the ballet drama ‘Dunhuang’, and explained how it embodies Chinese traditional culture by making a connection with ballet and traditional culture.
Several of the performers appeared on stage and showed some of their training moves, which gave the audience a deeper impression of how difficult being a ballet dancer is. A UIC student in attendance, Deng Jiaxuan, said that they can now appreciate the basic movements of ballet, saying that “Now I realize the hard work of ballet dancers, and I was very impressed by the dancers”.
The next part of the performance had members of the audience invited on stage to try and attempt a couple of the ballerina’s moves. Several brave students got on stage, and followed the movements of one of the ballet dancers. To finish the show, the NBC performed several pieces including the ‘The Red Detachment of Women’, which involved many performers dancing at once.
The audience really shows their appreciatation towards the ballet
UIC student, Hu Yujie, told the reporter that she was overwhelmed by the magnificent performance. The audience embraced the performance and expressed their delight by shouting “Bravo!”
Reporters: Samuel Burgess (MPRO), Lin Qingwei (Year 1, ACCT)
Photographers: Guo Rui (Year 2), Wu Wei (Year 1), Liu Yilun (Year 1) (all from the UIC News and Communication Club)
Editors: Deen He, Samantha Burns
(from MPRO)
