"Thank you for coming to Washington during the Spring Festival and bringing such a wonderful and world-class performance to American audiences. The perfect fusion of Chinese stories and Western art makes the audience astonished and love it very much! Congratulations to the great success of the performance tonight! Thank you for the long-term efforts by cultural exchanges to promote friendship between the Chinese and American peoples. I wish all the artists of National Ballet of China a happy new year!" - After the performance, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai accompanied by Director Feng Ying came to the stage, talked with everyone and excitedly said.

"It is a great honor to invite the artists of National Ballet of China to the John F. Kennedy Arts Center for the Performing Arts. All seats are occupied in the opera house tonight. The artists of National Ballet of China make the audience immerse in the ballet world created on the stage and have a beautiful and unforgettable night!" - Deborah F. Rutter, President of the John F. Kennedy Arts Center, said excitedly at the celebration after the premiere.

When the rustle snow falling on the stage seemed to cover up the world, a sea of ​​applause appeared in the John F. Kennedy Arts Center with the reappearance of the starring dancers and the curtain call. The wonderful performance had fully ignited the passion of all the audience and the hilarious opera house echoed the cheers and shouts of "Bravo! Bravo!" All the audiences stood up to express the most enthusiastic and lofty praise for the artists of National Ballet of China! The staff of the Art Center excitedly told us that for the past two decades, only a handful of the world's top ballet performance here had won such an overwhelming response like the premiere of Raise the Red Lantern tonight! 

At 7:30 pm on February 13th, 2019 of the US Eastern Time, the Chinese original ballet Raise the Red Lantern was performed at the John F. Kennedy Arts Center, which have attracted more than 2,000 American audiences and made all seats of the magnificent opera house occupied. The perfect fusion of the traditional Chinese elements and ballet art has also won the love of the majority of American audiences again and again.

It is worth mentioning that the performance of the evening was also the debut of Ma Xiaodong, Premier Danseur of National Ballet of China, to dance the "young man's role in the Beijing Opera" in Raise the Red Lantern.

The premiere of Raise the Red Lantern by The National Ballet of China at the John F. Kennedy Arts Center for the Performing Arts in the United States has come to a successful conclusion. From February 14th to 16th of the US Eastern Time, another four performances of Raise the Red Lantern will also be staged at the John F. Kennedy Arts Center! Let us expect Chinese ballet to write new brilliant chapters! 

Text by Zhou Xunzheng

Photo by Shi Ren