On October 9^th, as the ballet drama Le Songe by the Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company was performed on the stage, the 5^th NCPA Dance Festival was formally kicked off. Over the next 60 days, the NCPA stage will host splendid dances comprising 18 performances and 38 scenes from all over the world, including the Batsheva Dance Company's Decadance which takes to the stage on October 13^th and 14^th.

 The 5^th NCPA Dance Festival was formally kicked off

Shakespeare's classic representative work A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play cherished by the artists of every period. This year is the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, so the stages of Beijing are greeting diverse kinds of 'Shakespeare's dramas'. The most special work among them, Le Songe brought by the Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company, is an absolute must-see.

A few minutes before the house curtain rose, the audience were given the impression that it would be a drama of the modernist school. The various grotesque props and settings created the illusion of entering an exhibition of installation art. The performers used their bodies and even delivered lines in the performance. When the music started and the dancers stood on tiptoe, it reminded the audience that they had come to appreciate a ballet performance. 

This ballet tells an immortal legend that people are still familiar with. Under the originality of Ballets de Monte-Carlo Company Art Director Jean-Christophe Maillot, the story is divided into three principal lines, establishing a world of three elements: the Athenian domain, the fairyland and the craftsmen's world.   

The fairyland took the work of representative figure of 'musique concrète' Daniel Terooge as its incidental music. Music played by musical instruments was mixed with diverse sounds from nature, making the people seem to actually be within a forest fairyland, while the   sound of the ballet shoes knocking on the floor was included in the music itself, which is an original touch. The choreography of the spirits was also more modern; the king and queen of the fairies came to the stage in a cold and vanward image. In particular, the dance by the queen of the fairies and the artisan transformed into a donkey was filled with strange, fantastic colors and mysterious charm in Maillot's version, exploring the limitations of the beauty of the human body by using a long rope to represent the donkey's tail.   

The music of the craftsmen's world was created by Maillot's elder brother. In the performance of this section, both its setting and clothing style surpassed dance art itself. It looked more like the integrated presentation of drama, dance and performance art. The dancers even spoke their lines on the stage, and various forms of dance, pantomime and comedy were mixed and interchanged freely, permeating each other and making the concept of dance itself enlarge to ever more possibilities.   

Concerning the design, Maillot expressed that it was a salute to the artistic life of artists through dance. The Athenians are young and sentimental dancers, the fairyland spirits are mature dancers and the craftsmen's world represents the deep and thorough understanding of art by those who have mastered it.

The performance of Le Songe ended with joy and indignation

The performance of Le Songe ended with joy and indignation. However, the curtain of the NCPA Dance Festival has only just risen. On October 13^th and 14^th, the Batsheva Dance Company will hold its first performance of Decadance in China. 

There is a traditional saying in Israel that goes, 'Learn in Jerusalem, work in Haifa and go to Tel Aviv for dancing.' The Batsheva Dance Company about to make its debut on the NCPA stage is from Tel Aviv, Israel's 'hometown of dance'. Because of the description in the Bible, Israelis are proud of their ancestors dancing in the face of God. Prominent Jewish dancers are too numerous to mention in dance history, and modern dance is very popular among Israelis. 

However, the outbreak of World War II saw Israel seclude itself from the world for nearly 10 years, and it fell behind the international modern dance circle which enjoyed flourishing and rapid development. When the war was over, the French Jewish Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild started to apply herself to the development of modern Israeli dance, finally establishing the Batsheva Dance Company in her own name in 1964. The American modern dance master Martha Graham then took up the post of Art Director. The outstanding performances of the dance group made it the first group approved to perform her dance works aside from Graham's own dance group.   

In 1990, Ohad Naharin, who studied at the Martha Graham Dance School, School of American Ballet and Juilliard School, returned to his motherland to take charge of the Batsheva Dance Company as a replacement, and initiate a brand new era for the dance group. He created GAGA dance technology on the basis of inheriting Martha Graham's technical system, which quickly became popular in the world and made him the choreography master of the new generation in the international dance circle. His symbolic action is when the dancer is motionless and then suddenly 'purses up' their body. Today, Israel has many dance groups active in the international dance circle which were founded by dancers from the Batsheva Dance Company.   

Decadance is about to be performed on the stage and presented in a style that will make the audience instantly appreciate Naharin's choreography style and GAGA dance technology. The performance includes ten essential works: Z/na, Kyr, Telophaza, Anaphaza, Mabul, Sadeh21, Virus, Zachacha, Three and Max.