The deafening applause, cheers and whistles made the Chinese artists on the stage felt the enthusiasm of the audience of Brazil. The excited Rio audiences stood up spontaneously and broke into loud applause and cheers for the artists of National Ballet of China. The front curtain rose and fell for several times along with the artists of NBC making the curtain call again and again, but the audiences were still enthusiastic and stayed in the theatre for a long time.

On May 23rd local time, the first performance of the Ballet Raise the Red Lantern was staged at Rio City Theater. The visit of the Ballet of China to Brazil in nine years attracted thousands of Rio citizens flooding to the theater.

At 8:00 pm, the Rio City Theater was fully occupied with no empty seat. The front curtain rose for the Chinese Ballet Raise the Red Lantern amid the expectation of almost 2,000 audiences. The Chinese artists wore cheongsams, flicked their water sleeves and told the story from the distant oriental land, as if having a dialogue that traveled through time with the audiences. The gorgeous colors, elegant Chinese-style stage settings, exciting story line, music integrated with traditional Chinese opera, a movie-style presentation and the heart-shaking visual impact deeply attracted and appealed to everyone of the audience.

The first performance of Chinese ballet at Rio City Theater came to an end successfully. The enthusiastic Brazilian audiences have told us by their action that what fascinate the Brazilian people are not just samba and football, but Chinese ballet as well!

Text by Zhou Xunzheng

Photo by Shi Ren