© Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe

Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe - Swan Lake Video

And in the Photo Galleries...

Acrobatic Swan Lake - Cygnet Dance

Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe - Swan Lake Photographs
Ballet.co Gallery Area
all images © Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe

This show is quite simple incredible and absolutely mind-boggling! It is such GOOD FUN and I felt really uplifted when I came out at the end.

OK - it's not Swan Lake as we know it but WHO CARES??? Certainly not me.

The opening set where the Princess is turned into a Swan is stunning and would grace any ballet production. The rest of the sets are excellent too.

The piece opens with the Princess being turned into a Swan by a nast Eagle. It then moves on to the court of the Prince who is having a dream about a Swan Princess. He sets off around the world to find her.

Then end of Act 1 roughly equates to the white act.

Act 2 starts with the Prince being duped by a black swan, realising and rushing off to find his true love.

What I liked about the two "white acts" and the pdd in the first half of act 2 is that they start off with a brief homage to the Petipa/Ivanov choreography before they move on to the more acrobatic moves.

All the performers are terrific and the audience was cheering throughout. Wu Zhengdan, who danced the role of the Swan Princess had the most beautiful arms and hands. She also portrayed the tragedy of the role beautifully. I could well imagine that, if her career had taken a different road, she would be gracing the world's stages as a leading ballerina. Given some of the places she performs arabesques she has the most amazing balance too. Wei Baohua as the Prince had the build of the strong man at the bottom of acrobatic towers but he too had a very elegant upper body and hands and arms.

The cygnets were played in two ways - four small men in drag provided some playful comedy at various points and the famous dance itself was four frogs! They were worth the entrance money on their own.

The company got a very well deserved standing ovation at the end of the performance and looked really chuffed at their rapturous reception.

This show is absolutely terrific entertainment and I would highly recommend it.

That they arrived via conventional means is by no means a disappointment when one watches their extraordinary show, a spectacle re-telling of Swan Lake, which does to the old, venerated ballet what Liberace did to the classical piano. Bodies are un-shackled from their human chains and set to perform death-defying, groin-stretching feats. There is the lady (Tan Wanxia) who can thread her head through her legs backwards and who then allows her partner to balance one-handed upon her stomach; there are the gentlemen who become as spokes of a wheel, rolling around picking and dropping one another off; there is the hat-juggler (Chen Hua) who after a few whimsical Bratfisch moves, flings his hats forward, running to catch them in dizzying, circling fashion; and most of all there is the lady who balances on pointe upon the head of her partner and proceeds to pirouette with the composure of one who is starting morning class. This is Wu Zhengdan as the Swan Princess and her Prince, Wei Baohua and I am told they are the only people in the world who can do this; a nugget of information at which I am not surprised.

Wu is also a moving actress, coaxing from her undoubtedly virtuosic role all the emotions that hint at the Swan Queen’s tragedy, channelling them into her undulating arms, the singing of her torso, while Wei is of noble bearing and means, offering thoroughbred style and technique and solid support. Costume designs, by Zheng Weiguo, are ravishing, especially so in its final floral tableau and the shifting of the myriad stage scenes is almost as marvellous to behold as the acrobatics. It is unfortunate that the troupe cuts and pastes from an ill-recorded version of Tchaikovsky’s score.

Dancers: Hua, Tan, Wei, Wu

There are two acts - the first is 70 minutes and the second is 50 minutes. On Saturday the matinee started at 1400 and ended at 1630 - there was an "over-run" because of the very long ovations that the company received.

I'm boring all my colleagues with the details and telling them how much I enjoyed it!! Are you going?

paul

I really liked the corps costumes too, especially those worn when they were on roller skates.

Ladies with hats

Swan on the wire

Swan Princess - Wu Zhengdan

Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe of China: Swan Lake - ROH, Aug 2008
Ballet.co Gallery Area
all images © John Ross

If you spot a wrongly named dancer please contact John direct - John Ross Contact Details

Holy Crap, Batman!
(this is a different type of show so I thought I'd start in a different way).

It's the morning after and I still feel rather mugged in a Kapow! and Bam! kind of way. Did I really go to a Swan Lake where Siegfried rides a camel, the Spanish are portrayed as a bunch of trick cyclists and the swans are on roller-skates? Oh yes - pants to high art, this is where the action is.

Being serious, what this production isn't is Swan Lake. This is a circus/acrobatic company doing tricks around a theme, in this case loosely based on Swan Lake, and the plot definitely takes second place. It's all done very tongue in check, compressed into two long acts, the music all rearranged and with particularly loud and lurid designs. It has all the subtlety of Gary Glitter coupled with the emotional sensitivity of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2.

But I forgive all that for the joy of being a kid and seeing the wonder of bodies doing thrilling things in hoops, with balls, on balls, up poles, on stilts, on high wire, flying, contorting themselves and plain, simple, magic well done. The stars of course, as seen in all the pictures and videos, are Wu Zhengdan (Swan-princess) and Wei Baohua (Prince) who really do cast a spell of shock and awe over us all at their brilliant togetherness and the shared trust between them. They alone can occasionally sucker you emotionally for a while, in true Swan Lake fashion, only for it to be replaced by the Bam! of another bit of untasteful but amazing contortion.

It's all so off the wall you owe it to yourself to go and be stupefied too - Splat!

The Guangdong Swan Lake remains on at the Royal Opera House until 10 August and then up in Nottingham from the 13 - 16 August.

*That* much emotional sensitivity, huh? Or did you mean Terminator 1?

Like the dancer teacher said of Gelsey Kirkland's performance in Theme and Variations - and, yes, I was lucky enough to see that magic live - as well as one of the only two Swan Lakes she ever danced - 'how the hell does ANYONE do that!'. (Here I am referring to the arabesque again.)

I will go to see this Chinese troupe on Saturday night to see those moments alone again for myself. I want to see if the 'magical' element holds up without the prerequisite surprise. I will do this too with special joy as I am making a point of boycotting ALL of the 42 performances of (a more traditional it is true) SL by the RB this season as I think it is outrageous that some of their public subsidy has not been removed - especially when you think that there is so little 'NEW' work. Such copious performances of a warhorse without change - especially one so recently seen in the repertoire - should support the future as well as the past. It is up to us finally to see that it does. Indeed, where would Petipa have been if the Russians did not support such 'new' works when SL was original. Success can not have been a foregone conclusion at that time.

Too, it will be refreshing in the future to see more of the Guangdong troupe and their own - home-grown - repertoire. From the audience response last night they will be heartily welcomed.

I dare say they'll manage to sell the tickets you won't be buying, as the 'big' Tchaikovsky ballets (and R&J) are all but guaranteed to sell out (ticket wise - and art wise?), and at the highest ticket prices too. Without the income generated by SL, Beauty and especially Nutcracker, their subsidy would probably have to be increased...

Know how you feel though, a change or two would have been nice.

I think it's actually 24 performamces of Swan Lake scheduled not 42 (typo there maybe ?) I agree the runs of the blockbusters seem to get longer each year.

We gasped, grimaced & giggled in equal measure over what we saw and we never took our eyes off the stage for a second for fear of missing something spectacular.

Ballet purists will probably feel less positive over this production, but my usually dance reserved husband, dance mad son aged 10 & his ballerina girlfriend absolutely loved it.

The colourful scenery, costumes & props were loud, proud & very beautiful.

The acrobats were extremely skilled and entertaining, but many of them were also surprisingly good dancers, as were the ballerinas in the corps.

The swan flying scenes were beautifully done (not an obvious trip wire or costume bulge in sight) and the death defying dancing on point on heads and shoulders make you hold your breath for an age.

I would recommend this to individuals & families of both dance & non dance background in an instant, as it was 100% entertaining & 'feel good' all the way.

I have been to some stunning dance productions over the years at The Lowry, but I have never seen 3 packed tiers give a standing ovation there before - however, I did on Saturday 2nd August!

The whole show was truly amazing, even the ecstatic reviews can't do it justice.

http://www.sonnyradio.com/swanlake_0001.swf