China's Suzhou Ballet Theater brings original work Tang Yin to Poland

Dancers of China's Suzhou Ballet Theater perform Tang Yin in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on May 7, 2019. Invited by the 26th Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, China's Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe performed its original ballet Tang Yin in Poland on Monday, giving the audiences a taste of Chinese artistic elements in ballet. (Xinhua/Zhou Nan)

WARSAW, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Invited by the 26th Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, China's Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe performed its original ballet Tang Yin in Poland on Monday, giving the audiences a taste of Chinese artistic elements in ballet.

Tang Yin is about the bumpy life of the protagonist Tang Yin, a talented and romantic scholar born and died in Suzhou, south of the Yangtze River, about 500 years ago in China's Ming Dynasty.

This ballet applies freehand brushwork, such as the shadow on the wall, the flower beside the pillow, to strengthen its aesthetic effect. It also uses the music of Arvo Part, an Estonian composer, and combines traditional and modern dances.

Li Ying, artistic director of the Suzhou Ballet Theater, said she was very pleased that the troupe is invited to perform in Poland during the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival. "It is a matter of a great significance to us, a young ballet group of 12 years," she added.

"Through the performance, we try to present the oriental beauty to the audience in Europe, in the hope that the audience would like the Chinese culture," Li said.

Liu Guangyuan, Chinese ambassador to Poland, said this year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Poland. The visit of Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe has demonstrated the close cooperation between the two countries in the field of art.

Suzhou Ballet Theater troupe is on a 12-day tour in Latvia and Poland. This is the first time that Tang Yin ballet is performed abroad. In 2015, at the invitation of the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival, the Suzhou troupe visited Poland and performed ballet Carmen.

Found in 2007, Suzhou Ballet Theater is the only professional ballet troupe in Jiangsu province and the sixth in China. It aims to create original ballet, combining Chinese and western styles.