Corporate Bits | National Ballet of China ready for Venetian Theatre performances

A press conference was held yesterday in light of the National Ballet of China’s last three performances of a historic tour, which will be held at the Venetian Theatre this weekend. The tour has been conducted to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “The Red Detachment of Women.” The conference was held yesterday at The Venetian, where media personnel from Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China were given the opportunity to speak to some of the renowned troupe’s key figures and principal dancers ahead of the shows.
The National Ballet of China is celebrating the 1964 debut performance of “The Red Detachment of Women,” by staging this well-known Chinese classical ballet; once again in major cities throughout mainland China. Since mid-January this year, they have performed at various locations including Hainan, Beijing, Guangdong, Chongqing, Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Shandong.
Having performed the Chinese version of the Christmas classic “The Nutcracker” in December 2012, the troupe is returning to perform at the Venetian Theatre from today until Sunday. There, they will stage the final three in a total of fifty performances of “In Memory of the 50th Anniversary of the Premiere of The Red Detachment of Women by the National Ballet of China.”
“Sands China Ltd. is honored to be hosting the National Ballet of China once again, and also to have The Venetian Theatre as the last stop of this historic tour of the country’s only national ballet company,” said Edward Tracy, president and CEO of Sands China, at the press conference.
The administrative director of the National Ballet of China stated that “‘The Red Detachment of Women’ has passed through 50 years of time, but it remains vivid in people’s memories and has been constantly put on stage. [This] indicates that this work of art carries an extraordinary artistic value and vitality, and that we have the responsibility to protect and promote the repertoire.”
Having premiered on September 26, 1964, in Beijing, “The Red Detachment of Women” tells the story of a poor peasant’s daughter, Qionghua. She is persecuted by a deceitful landowner but is rescued by a Red Army cadre and later joins the army’s Red Detachment of Women. It is the first and most successful full-length Chinese ballet, in which both the theme and the content reflect a very unique Chinese style. The work has been hailed as a fine example of the successful combination of Western ballet techniques with Chinese folk dance, and is considered an important milestone in Chinese ballet history.