Divine Performing Arts: New Tang Fantasia

In February 2008 I attended the Shen Yun Chinese spectacular at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
For images from the 2009 world tour see:
http://www.divineshows.com/about/divine-performing-arts-chinese-new-year-spectacular?s=151

This event was promoted as family entertainment, an extravaganza with decorative sets and an army of performers. The format of the evening was something like a “variety show”, made up of 5 – 10 minute slots including dance, dance-drama, Chinese opera, musicians and solo singers. Each slot was introduced in English and Mandarin by two compares attired in showbiz outfits.

Perhaps the most interesting question I asked myself was how to evaluate the show, especially the choreography. There does not seem to be an exact equivalent in the West. In some respects this performance was closer to classical ballet, but in other ways the show was more like a musical in terms of the extravagant staging and glitz.

Movement styles, choreographic patterns and aesthetics

The formation dancing was in places comparable to corps de ballet and in others to Busby Berkeley style patterns, though Asiatic dancing bodies represent a different lineage of cultural memory and an ideal of beauty different in detail from that of European ballet. As explained by Yi Cao in a short documentary film about Chinese classical dance, there is a different repertoire of movements in Chinese traditional dance.
Unlike ballet, dancers are not on pointe. Vertical jumps with embellishments such as jetee are less frequent or absent. The Chinese form includes far more contact with the ground, sitting, horizontal articulations and spins from a lying position, forwards and backwards acrobatic flips and arm spins with circular steps all feature. Often wearing long dresses, dancers glide across the stage as if rolling along on ball bearings, using fast little steps articulated below the knee. There are less solos and duets, and less narrative structure. Much attention goes into re-arranging the decorative pattern of dancers.

Costumes and hand held props such as large plastic lotus flowers and musical instruments form an integral part of the choreographic design. The extensive use costume extensions such as elongated sleeves and other fabrics that glide through the air behind the dancers is often as important as the shapes made by the bodies of the dancers. The lighting design plays an integral role in enhancing the effects of these patterns of colour and fabric. Judy Van Zile refers to this extension of space around the dancer, also featured extensively in Korean dance as the kinosphere.

In terms of content, the Chinese classical dance of Divine Performing Arts has a different set of themes from those found in ballet. Those in common with ballet include tales of heroes and warriors such as Mulan. Generally the focus tends not to be about individuals or romantic duets. Most frequent are recreations of pageants such as the communion of the Emperor with heaven, imperial court ceremonies and Buddhist ceremonies. Many dances depict the relationship between humanity and nature. For examples the long flowing and billowing sleeves represent the clouds, from which rain will come to help crops to grow. In some pieces women mime the sowing of seed crops. One minute into the piece Flower Fairies, a second row of sitting dancers appear to grow out of the ground, by means of a platform that elevates them up from below the stage. Here the dancers represent nature, their hands are cupped together and raised above their heads, like flowers sprouting up out of the soil.

Music and Stage Design

The accompanying music is somewhat variable in its authenticity. Where the orchestra is used, this often gives an inauthentic tint of western style drama. Some pieces use pre-recordings of instruments such as the guzheng zither or xiao flute. Many of the original compositions are somewhat hybrid in nature, combining digital keyboard sounds with authentic acoustic Chinese instruments. The arrangements are in places very well tailored to the spirit and dynamics of the choreography. In the dance Fairies’ Flutes there are subtle shifts in tempo to cue sections of the choreography, a compositional device found in traditional Chinese percussion music and other dance music. The music for Flower Fairies is composed by Carlos Campos. Although his name is Latin American, and the motifs and sound palette of his score could be described as “new age”, many details such as slow glissandi fit the mood of the dance eminently.

The performance also features a variety of musical interludes. These vary from a very good solo performance on the erhu, a bowed string instrument, to some awful light operatic songs.
Another novel dimension to the show is provided by the use of high tech projected computer images that depict a different backdrop for each section of the show. These include animations such as airborne flower fairies who alight at the wings of the stage before emerging as real dancers, and lotus flowers sprouting from a pond, opening and rotating in celestial harmony. The result is a seamless combination of Disney fantasy and real dance performance.

As an opportunity to see aspects of classical Chinese dance I am glad to have attended the performance, despite the cheesy showbiz veneer.
However, from reading the program I discovered that the show is supported by the New Tang Dynasty Television from the USA. The performers are mainly Chinese Americans and many are members of the Falun Gong religion that is outlawed in the PRC. This explains the inclusion of several propaganda dances that portray the persecution of this sect in China.

More recently I have seen extracts of work by Yang Liping on Youtube. She also popularizes classical and regional folk dances from China and has become a cultural icon in the PRC. The leaders of the PRC have not been happy about the global tours of Divine Performing Arts. I am surprised that they have not sought to promote similar tours by Yang Liping who could be an ideal cultural ambassador and whose excellent work should be seen by international audiences.