A Dream Of Red Mansions 

National Ballet of China

Esplanade Theatre

Friday 13 March, 8pm

Quite unlike much of the standard Western ballet repertoire, the National Ballet of China’s A Dream Of Red Mansions is memorable for its particular aesthetic flavour. Based on the eighteenth-century Chinese literary classic of the same title, this work combines pointe shoes and ballet technique with strong influence from Chinese dance and opera. 

The result is a refreshing change from the classical Western princes, princesses and fairies that one usually expects at the ballet. Here, the costumes worn by the main characters are distinctly Chinese. In terms of movements, the stylised walking in some scenes, and the upper body and arm movements of the performers, are drawn from Chinese movement traditions.  

The dominant stage image is a striking stage flat spanning almost the whole length of the stage, with a circular aperture in the middle big enough for performers to pass through.

The flat moves up and downstage, and rotates around a centre axis at different points in the performance. This emphasis on rotation and circularity perhaps mirrors the Buddhist philosophical idea of karmic cycles, which is one of the influences in the source text of Dream.

Rather than the technical stunts that are often the highlight of Western ballet repertoire, in Dream the performers are faced with another challenge – that of conveying the emotional depth of the work. Chen Zhuming as the protagonist Jia Baoyu, and Fang Mengying as his love interest Lin Daiyu, take on this challenge with admirable finesse.

Their scenes together in the first act evoke the joys of innocent young love without being cloyingly sweet. There is also a beautiful pas de quatre in which Jia Baoyu and Feng Mengying dance with the Deity Shenying and Fairy Crimson Pearl, supernatural alter egos of the two lead characters.