On January 29, 2020 “The Butterfly Lovers” was performed by the Shanghai Ballet in the Tryon Festival theater at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts
Written by Daniel Plata
“The Butterfly Lovers” is a romantic drama that takes place in ancient China, the entirety of the story is expressed entirely through the medium of ballet. Luckily the booklet given out for the performance had a summary of the story included within.
In addition, before the performance a fellow student and Dr. Robinson had given our class a run down of the plot. Though even with some prior knowledge of the performance given beforehand I personally had some trouble deciphering certain events. Yet, somehow being tasked with figuring out the story myself actually made watching the performance even more enjoyable. I was left to my own devices to figure out what gestures of the body meant what and trying to interpret the body language on my own forced me to think more critically of the performance itself. Unfortunately I was unable to take any pictures of the performance itself because beforehand an announcer asked the audience to refrain from taking any photos or videos of the performance.
Many parts of the performance itself were easily understood and enjoyable for all, such as the part where the antagonist bullied the old scholar and where the antagonist and male protagonist fought for the female protagonist. Also, just the raw ballet portion of the performance was a spectacle to see. At some point one performer spun for a ridiculous span of time ushering a resounding applause from the audience. A lot of the maneuvers performed were pure feats of athleticism and very exciting to see.
Overall the experience was immensely enjoyable and I’d recommend anyone to go see it for themselves.