09-26-2007

Yesterday evening, over 500 Chinese and foreign artists from 22 countries presented their own national cultures: Roughness, Elegance, Arbitrariness, and Flamboyance.

Flowery windows, pavilions, bridges, plus moonlight and bamboo shade that were projected on the walls……yesterday evening, by the Jinji Lake, more than 500 artists from 22 countries got together on the stage that was full of Suzhou features; although they spoke different languages, they were closely tied together by the link of art. Different national cultures and various performing ways also displayed the same splendor and classics. During the two-hour opening-ceremony performance, artists from Russia, Hungary, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Switzerland, Japan, Tanzania, Australia, Cook Islands, Greece, Austria, South Africa, Lebanon, Cuba, Peru, Korea, America and China performed programs of quite different styles and fully reflected the festival’s characteristics---being international, national, folk and mass. What the stage exhibited was a three-dimensional scroll of all the cultures in the world.

Unrestrained Dance Displaying Primitive Passion

National cultures are also the world’s treasure. The highlights of yesterday evening’s performance were national dances of Sri Lanka, Cook Islands and South Africa. Every time the unrestrained drumbeats sounded on the stage, the audience began to clap their hands in accordance with the rhythm and even subconsciously swung their bodies, and the same passion sprang up in both performers’ and audience’s hearts.   

The Ves Dance that Sri Lanka Ves Dance Ensemble performed used to be the dance performed at the deity ceremony. White costumes, red hats and exquisite silver accessories were Ves costumes that represented highlands’ tradition, symbolizing the totem worship of primitive people. The male dancers in such costumes were tall and grand, and they jumped onto the stage and, with the complex and rhythmic drumbeats, they imitated elephants by body movements and gestures to show the boundless power of the male. 

Green and yellow hula skirts drew beautiful traces in the air with young girls and young men twisting their waists. When Tongareva Enua Culture Dance Ensemble, coming from the beautiful Cook Islands in Southern Pacific Ocean, danced hula-hula on the stage, you could feel from the hula skirt’s rim and the performers’smile the sea breeze and gentle sunshine of the islands. Costumes for hula-hula dance of Cook Islands were similar to Hawaii hula-hula dance, and hula skirts were made of tropical plant fiber. Women also wore plastrons and jewelry that were made of tree barks, coca nut shells and seashells. 16 male dancers’ and female dancers’ performances were unrestrained and unreserved, the braveness of man and the grace of woman were fully displayed in the unrestrained dance.

South African folk dance began with urgent drumbeats, but the rhythm was quite different from that of Chinese drums. Black bodies contrasted sharply against colorful skirts, and the dancers wore white sheepskin around their wrists and ankles with colorful feather hat on the head. The dazzling unrestrained dance steps were just like wild fire burning on the stage. Imagine that you were enjoying such dances with the accompany of flickering bonfire and dim cries of hawks on the boundless African plain, what kind of feeling would you have?　

Expressing Feelings by Lifting Hands Gracefully

Different from hula-hula dance and folk dance that gave out primitive smell, performances from Australia, Europe, Japan and Korea were quite graceful. Gentlemen wearing formal hats danced polkas, girls in kimono took graceful steps, and harp and flute were played together. These different performances were just like a variety of opening windows to let the audience enjoy different cultures and customs.

Mary Schneider, the Australian “Queen of Yodelling”, was the only solo of yesterday evening’s performance, but this world famous singer fully displayed her grounding. She wore an elegant long dress, without many body movements, she attracted the audience by her melodious singing. Such unique vocalization as the swift shift between true voice and falsetto and the big jump of interval as well as her improvise performance let the audience fully enjoy the charm of Yodelling singing, and her brand new interpretation of the world classic music Radetzky March even subdued all the audience.

Four Bamboo Dance from Japan’s Ryukyu was particularly tranquil and graceful. During the performance, dancers wore flower hats and danced with bamboo pieces in hand. Dark purple and bright yellow traditional kimono, quick short steps that did not let people see their ankles and the constant beating of bamboo claps over the ear exposed Japanese girls’ tenderness to the most. Different from the Four Bamboo Dance, the Korean dance Flower Fan Dance displayed brightness and cheerfulness through gorgeous color and posture. Girls with feather fans in hand created numerous beautiful flower images by opening and twisting the fans. Moreover, there were also butterflies flying among flowers. The fans sometimes became petals swinging in the wind, and sometimes they became butterflies’ fluttering wings.

Speaking of Dreams from the ancient Peony Pavilion

Peony Pavilion—Thoughts on Dreams was the grand finale of the opening-ceremony performance. The brand new innovation of combining Kunqu opera and dance made the beauty of Kunqu get a full exhibition with the effect of instrumental music and collective dance. Lyrics, melodies and dance got a perfect combination. Among the programs that were staged yesterday evening, this representative of Kunqu opera for 600 years could be called the oldest art, although the audience could not understand the lyrics, the deep love that delivered from the performers’ eyes touched everyone, which also added Suzhou local cultural feature to the opening-ceremony performance.

The shy smile of Du Liniang and tender glance of Liu Mengmei made the scene tender and sweet at once, though a minute before the American hip pop stirred the audience up. Du Liniang walked through flowers to appreciate the Spring, and at the moment she traversed a moon-like door, Liu Mengmei walked towards her. The mood that the performance delivered and the stage scenery—pavilion and terraces---got a perfect combination, instantly the stage was just where Du Liniang sighed with emotion at the fine moment and beautiful scene.

On the stage, Du Liang and Liu Mengmei danced in the company of other dancers, they gazed at each other tenderly and their long white silver sleeves danced with them; off stage, flashlight flickered to record the moment.