The NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular Presents: The Ladies Of The Manchu Court Article

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The NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular presents: The ladies of the Manchu Court

Celebrate China’s heritage and Year of the Pig with the NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular--where Elegance for the Ages Meets the Ladies of the Manchu Court. The show is a display of China's ancient culture and traditional values through theatre, music and dance.

Author: Wei Yong

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Against the background of a golden throne hall projected onto a gigantic screen with the melodious music of the Qing Dynasty, a group of beautiful Manchu “geges” emerges elegantly in a line from one side of the stage, wearing deep blue Manchu midi, dalachi-style headgear, and typical Manchurian-style “flowerpot shoes” with three-inch heels. Walking out in small graceful steps, they started dancing delicately.

With the stunning “gege dress,” the graceful music coupled with the strong color of Manchu and the exquisite choreography, the brilliant young dancers from the Feitian Dance School and Lotus Art Group beautifully display the virtues and elegance of traditional females in the “Flowering Age of Kang Xi and Qian Long.”

“The gege dance eloquence and graceful style is amazing to Westerners,” says writer Xu Tianlin. “It connotes not only the virtues and grace of the noble females, but the entire ‘Flowering Age of Kang Xi and Qian Long’ is able to match the great age in the Tang Dynasty. The audience could get a true feeling for the portrayal of substantial prosperity, confidence, and spiritual tolerance.”

Some of the shows, such as the "Ladies of the Manchu Court" performed by the Fei Tian Dance School, were also eye opening for the Chinese members of the audience. Some were commenting about the fact that they had never seen anything like this before. I could hardly believe my eyes, that those dancers could actually dance gracefully and in harmony wearing those horseshoes also called flowerpot shoes. Another Chinese person said: “In mainland China, Manchu has negative connotation to it. I'm almost shocked to see so much graceful dancing and such good music. You don't see it in mainland China."

When the huge curtain slowly falls down, the classy “geges” gradually disappear in front of the audience, leaving a magnificent, historic, and permanently lasting picture in their memory.

Besides the traditional Chinese dance and music, this year's show includes depictions of the Chinese heroine Mulan, loyal Song Dynasty general Yue Fei, and many more. It also includes an artistic portrayal of a Falun Gong practitioner being beaten and killed by police in China. The practitioner ascends to the sky after being killed, whereas the policemen who beat her face retribution. Simma Holt, Canadian and former member of Parliament said: “I thought that number was beautifully done—it wasn’t gory at all and I’m glad that NTDTV has the guts to depict some of the atrocities committed by the Chinese regime. Such re-enactments are nothing unusual; interpretative dance is a feature of all great symphonies, operas and ballets.”

"Our growing audience speaks for itself," Wang, Canadian NTDTV Director, said. "People are hungry for a Chinese New Year show that both showcases the beautiful traditional culture and is not afraid to say what is really happening today in China." It ranked 7th on Billboard Magazine’s top 10 shows in Feb 2006 based on ticket sales for the 2006 shows at Radio City Music Hall.

Why not celebrate the Year of the Pig in a Spectacular way and treat yourself to a sumptuous feast of ancient Chinese culture – the NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular. It is playing at world-famous New York City Radio City Music Hall from Feb. 14-17. Don’t miss it!

About Author

Wei Yong is a retired Chinese Historian living in Toronto. Wei is looking forward to taking her grand children to the New York Spectacular. For more info about the NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular in your area, please visit:
http://shows.ntdtv.com
http://www.ntdtv.com

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The NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular presents: The ladies of the Manchu Court