The mysterious and inimitable world of Chinese culture is going to be a bit closer to Ukrainian audiences. The National Opera and the Lviv Opera will host, on March 1 and 4, respectively, the performance of Zhengzhou Opera and Ballet Theater artistes, Shaolin martial arts fighters, and brilliant Chinese national instrument players. The soiree will be dedicated to the feast of spring. The Chinese artistes are visiting Ukraine as part of an international tour.
The Zhengzhou Opera and Ballet Theater represents the esthetics of a refined Chinese classical choreography in an exotic style typical of the “Celestial Empire” only. For example, the artistes will show such a unique number as a flamboyant fan dance.
Another item of the program will be virtuosic solos on the traditional Chinese instruments erhu and guzheng, which will convey China’s musical color to the audience.
And the show of flying Shaolin monks from Denfeng, Henan province, the place of the famous Buddhist Temple of Shaolin, will be the program’s star attraction. Students at Tagou, the best-known martial arts school, have won a lot of international Kung Fu tournaments. Incidentally, they were invited to perform at the closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics and at the opening of the Special Olympic World Games, the Asian Games, and the Beijing Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. The acme of the Chinese Shaolin masters’ performance will be a show of the human body’s incredible capacities, such as breaking iron on a human head, piercing glass with a thin needle, and chipping off a piece of metal with a finger.
