Have you ever imagined what it will look like to dance samba on the ballet stage of Raise the Red Lantern? 

At 4:30 pm on May 24th local time, a group of samba dancers locally from Rio walked into City Theater. In front of the stage backdrop for the ballet Raise the Red Lantern, which is full of Chinese traditional pattern, the samba dancers in South American costumes danced the passionate samba together with the Chinese ballet dancers in the percussion music of distinctive rhythms.

In the afternoon, ballet students from Rio State Dance School came to the theater and watched the rehearsal of the classic ballet Swan Lake to be performed by National Ballet of China. Mr. Xu Gang answered the questions raised by the teachers and students about National Ballet of China, such as the number of dancers, the training system and the actor selection mechanism, etc.

At 8:00 pm, the second performance of the Chinese ballet Raise the Red Lantern at Rio City Theater began. The actors who were still learning samba and dancing passionately just a few hours ago already turned into the "Mater", "Wife" and "Concubines" as well as the "Peking Opera Actor" in the ballet, and presented a fantastic ballet show once again for thousands of enthusiastic Rio audiences.

Text by Zhou Xunzheng

Photo by Shi Ren