Shanghai Ballet has announced that it will be presenting a new performance season featuring four major productions that cover classical and modern dance, starting March 24.

This will be the first performance season the troupe is holding at its new home at the Shanghai International Dance Center. Located in Shanghai's Hongqiao suburb, the center celebrated its opening in October.

The upcoming spring 2017 season comprises 11 shows that will be presented at two venues in Shanghai. Two modern original productions, Jane Eyre and Hamlet, will be presented at the Shanghai Grand Theatre, which has been staging Shanghai Ballet's performances since its opening in 1998. Two classical pieces, Swan Lake and Giselle, will be shown at the new Shanghai International Dance Center.

"The new center has far better conditions for artists' creations. All four productions are now being rehearsed in five studios within the center," said Xin Lili, director of Shanghai Ballet.

Xin said that a company's dance techniques are best illustrated through classical productions while its creativity and vitality depends on its original productions, and this direction has evidently been pivotal to its success. In 2011, she made the bold decision to present an original dance of Jane Eyre, roping in Shanghai-based playwright Yu Rongjun to adapt the 19th century English novel for the dance theater.

The adaptation turned out to be a success and Fan Xiaofeng, the Chinese dancer who played Bertha Mason, won the prestigious Lotus award, the most recognized dance award in China, for her performance. This March, Fan will take on the role of Gertrude in Shanghai Ballet's rendition of Hamlet.

Over the past few years, Shanghai Ballet has worked with acclaimed choreographers, such as Patrick de Bana from Germany and Derek Deane from Britain, to adapt a series of well-loved stories into modern ballet productions. In 2015, the dance company produced Echoes of Eternity, which was adapted from an ancient Chinese poem about the love story between a Tang Dynasty (618-907) emperor and his concubine Yang Yuhuan. A year later, Shanghai Ballet debuted the first ballet presentation of Hamlet as part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare.

Shanghai Ballet was founded in 1979, while its predecessor Shanghai Dance School was established in 1960. The company's first masterpiece The While Haired Girl is widely considered a milestone in the telling of a Chinese tale through the Western performance art of ballet.

Shanghai Ballet has more than 80 dancers and recruits about 10 new members every year. The company has toured extensively abroad and its Jane Eyre production has been shown in major cities such as Beijing, London and Warsaw.

(China Daily USA 03/03/2017 page8)