Visits to Tchaikovsky's famous ballet "The Nutcracker" has been an annual holiday tradition for fans of the theatre for decades, especially for Westerners who tend to go and see the show leading up to the Christmas period.
In the Chinese "Nutcracker," the story shifts from Christmas Eve to the eve of the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Clara is turned into a Chinese girl named Yuanyuan and her grandfather is an antiques connoisseur.
A foreign guest who is invited to their house for Chinese New Year gives Yuanyuan a nutcracker as a gift. Marvelous things happen one after another as Yuanyuan falls asleep.
In Yuanyuan's dreams, a kingdom of sweets transforms itself into a kingdom of porcelain. What's more, famous dances will thrill audiences and include a Spanish dance, Arabian dance, Mirliton dance and a Waltz of flowers which are all transformed into dances that represent traditional Chinese folk customs, seen at Chinese New Year.
Feng Ying, one of the choreographers, said: "Audiences will see us celebrate New Year on stage in a very Chinese way."
Two years ago, the National Ballet of China started to produce this Chinese version.
Zhao Ming, Wang Yuanyuan and Feng Ying, three young choreographers of different styles, were invited to co-operate in the production.
Zhao comes from a song and dance troupe of the People's Liberation Army. Many of his works depict the lives of soldiers. His talents lie with choreographing Chinese classical dance.
Wang Yuanyuan, in contrast, specializes in modern dance.
It is also the first time that Feng Ying, the former prima ballerina of the National Ballet of China, will choreograph.
"I like these young people who have all had very systematic training in ballet and now they have broadened their minds to try other styles," said Zhao Ruheng, artistic director and president of the National Ballet of China.
"So I invited them to co-choreograph the Chinese “Nutcracker” which is an experiment," Zhao said.
The experiment is one of the new works that the troupe has created in order to explore ways to produce more Chinese works, Zhao said.
(China Daily December 11, 2001)
