Hong Kong Ballet.HONG KONG BALLET The Hong Kong Ballet (香港芭蕾舞團) is Hong Kong's leading professional ballet company, and also the famous group for Classical Ballet, since it founded in 1979. ST. LAWRENCE CENTRE FOR THE ARTS TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA MAY 7, 2004 Stephen Jefferies, artistic director of the Hong Kong Ballet, says it took him seven years to devise his two-act spectacle, Legend of the Great Archer. Even if he had toiled another seven years it is unlikely be would have found a workable way to compress so much storytelling into two hours. This retelling of the ancient Chinese legend has too much plot and too little dance. Combined with Canada-based Chinese composer Kuan Nai-chung's bombastic score, a blend of Western neo-Romanticism and Chinese harmonics, it makes for a wearisome experience. Given its epic emotions and convoluted plot, the story might better lend itself to opera than ballet. The Emperor promises his daughter, Princess Jade, to whomever can rid the land of a plague of scorching suns. Yi, the great archer-god, arrives to do the job but, for reasons never made clear, provokes the ire of the Supreme God and is demoted to mortal status. Yi's contingent romance with Jade has infuriated in·fu·ri·ate tr.v. in·fu·ri·at·ed, in·fu·ri·at·ing, in·fu·ri·ates To make furious; enrage. adj. Archaic Furious. Feng, the Emperor's chief bodyguard and Jade's secret lover. Meanwhile, Jade's nameless maid is in unrequited love with Feng. And so it goes. After much parading, fending off of monsters, and often brutal sex, Yi, Feng, and the maid all die, leaving Jade, who has snared the elixir elixir /elix·ir/ (e-lik´ser) a clear, sweetened, alcohol-containing, usually hydroalcoholic liquid containing flavoring substances and sometimes active medicinal ingredients. e·lix·ir n. with which Yi had hoped to regain immortality, to float off to become goddess of the moon. The ballet, which premiered in Hong Kong in March, has clearly been created with the tastes of Chinese audiences in mind. Its over-the-top dramatics dra·mat·ics n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. The art or practice of acting and stagecraft. 2. Dramatic or stagy behavior: Cut the dramatics and get to the point. , acrobatic dancing, and martial displays leave little room for three-dimensional nuance. Where Jefferies does find choreographic opportunity to elaborate (mostly in the raunchy pas de deux pas de deux (French; “step for two”) Dance for two performers. A characteristic part of classical ballet, it includes an adagio, or slow dance, by the ballerina and her partner; solo variations by the male dancer and then the ballerina; and a coda, or ), his style evokes Kenneth MacMillan, whose works Jefferies danced during his distinguished Royal Ballet career. Jefferies' best contribution is an effective yet economical set consisting largely of several fleecy fleec·y adj. fleec·i·er, fleec·i·est Of, resembling, or covered with fleece: fleecy clouds. fleec drapes that form a variety of canopies and enclosures. The 40-member, 25-year-old company, however, is well schooled and exceedingly pretty. Its leading artists, notably Faye Leung, Liang Jing jing (jing) [Chinese] one of the basic substances that according to traditional Chinese medicine pervade the body, usually translated as "essence"; the body reserves or constitutional makeup, replenished by food and rest, that supports , Nobuo Fujino, and Ayako Fujioka, have the technical prowess and dramatic intelligence to do justice to more evolved and challenging choreography. FOR MORE INFORMATION www.hkballet.com |
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