Shanghai Ballet to Perform at Harris Center/Three Stages, 10/31

The renowned grace and flawless technique of the Shanghai Ballet fills the stage at Harris Center/Three Stages as they perform the "Romeo and Juliet" of Chinese folklore-a poignant love story that dates to the Tang Dynasty, The Butterfly Lovers.

Shanghai Ballet: The Butterfly Lovers will perform on Thursday, October 31, 2013 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $29-$49, Premium $59; Students with ID $25. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from 10 am to 6 pm, Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

In this storybook ballet The Butterfly Lovers, a perfect blend of classical ballet and Chinese folk style, tells the story of Liang and Zhu, two classmates in love. The star-crossed lovers, like Western literature's "Romeo and Juliet," must transcend family disapproval and tragedy to be together. Shanghai Ballet enlivens this full-length ballet with their trademark dazzling sets and costumes that harken from Chinese landscapes, as well as precise classical movement, from their Russian-influenced training. In the words of critics, "The Shanghai Ballet is as elegant as the delicate porcelain imported from China."

The Shanghai Ballet was organized in 1979. The White-Haired Girl, a classical Chinese ballet created in the 20th century, brought instant fame to the Company (which has now given over 1,700 performances of the piece) and helped establish the Shanghai Ballet's predominant position in the international ballet world.

With a history of thirty four years, the Shanghai Ballet has, after its legendary The White Haired Girl performances, created and staged the folk-styled ballet productions of The Butterfly Lovers (Xin Lili) and A Sigh of Love (Bertrand d'At). Additionally, the Company's repertoire includes the classical ballet repertoire of Swan Lake (Derek Deane), Coppelia (Pierre Lacotte), La Sylphide (Jean-Paul Gravier), The Nutcracker (Tetsutaro Shimizu), Romeo and Juliet (Derek Deane), Serenade (George Balanchine) along with such modern pieces as The Imagination of Red, Fébrile, Now, Here and Conversation with Chopin.

Recently the Shanghai Ballet presented the world premiere of the modern ballet Jane Eyre, an adaptation of British novelist Charlotte Bronte's novel of the same name. While Shanghai Ballet excels at presenting classical ballet, it was unprecedented to perform a production of modern style. Their dancers were not used to performing contemporary ballet because of differences in body movement, muscle control, and style. Their dancers adapted well and the world premiere of Jane Eyre really surprised the audiences with its excellence, allowing Shanghai Ballet keep close pace with the international trend of ballet development.

Since its founding, many young dancers of the Company have won a total of 32 medals in various international dance competitions, and they have also achieved impressive results in nationwide competitions. The team of current principal dancers, including Fan Xiaofeng, Sun Shenyi, Ji Pingping, Chen Zhenrong, Yu Xiaowei, and Chen Yan, is growing into a brilliant and artistically mature unit, with rising dancers such as Wu Husheng, Wang Ya'nan, Duan Wenfei, and Zhang Yao becoming the stars of the next generation.

The Shanghai Ballet is active in cooperation and artistic exchange with artists and companies both at home and abroad. The Company has toured not only throughout China but in almost one hundred cities all over the world.