The annual NCPA Dance Festival is always a dance carnival highly anticipated by dance enthusiasts in Beijing. After the appreciation of the world famous ballet companies and ballet dancers’ masterpieces, “NCPA International Ballet Gala”, which was held on November 26-27 and brought together top-grade ballet masters, became a brilliant stage to intensively radiate the splendors and showcase top stars’ superb skills. 14 ballet stars of Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, Bavarian State Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dortmund Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Berlin State Ballet and Boston Ballet gathered together on the same stage, and rolled out the magnificent picture in front of the audiences.

Adiarys Almeida presented high-quality, fast and dazzling “whipping rotation” in Black Swan Pas De Deux.

Photo by WANG Xiaojing

Adiarys Almeida, who amazed all audiences in Black Swan Pas De Deux in Swan Lake last summer, excited audiences by virtue of her unique techniques. Almeida is always famous for great explosive power and rapid rotation. This time she still lived up to expectations, and presented high-quality, fast and dazzling “whipping rotation” in Black Swan Pas De Deux. Jeffrey Cirio, who is her partner and newly-appointed principal dancer of American Ballet Theater, impressed audiences with stunning steady lifts in Don Quixote.

Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia, two principal dancers from New York City Ballet, presented the Danish choreographer August Bournonville’s masterpiece La Sylphide. In addition to this romantic masterpiece, they also presented Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux and Rubies Pas De Deux (two symphonic ballet masterpieces created by Balanchine, a founding master of New York City Ballet). Balanchine is well-known for combination of music and dance. Many of his works are free from the constraints of literature and plot on ballet, and focus on the beauty of human body. With naturally relaxed body posture and clean-cut pace, Megan Fairchild and Gonzalo Garcia rendered Tchaikovsky's delicacy and romanticism.

Rubies Pas De Deux Photo by WANG Xiaojing

Rubies Pas De Deux is one of total three chapters of Jewels by Balanchine. Semyon Chudin and Evgenia Obraztsova’s performance sets textbook-like example. With outstanding skills, sincere and deep emotional expressions, they showcased graceful Russian ballet style. Both Russian stars also presented Sonata with full of passion and ideal as composed by Rachmaninov. Choreographed by German master Uwe Scholz, Sonata is always known for diverse techniques. Interpreted by stars of Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, this work further exploded the passion of Rachmaninov’s music. Moreover, as a classical Russian ballet excerpt, Nutcracker Pas De Deux was smoothly performed and fervently acclaimed by the audiences.

Le Corsaire Pas De Deux in Act II is also “familiar” to various ballet galas and competitions, which was presented by Vladimir Shklyarov and Maria Shirinkina of Bavarian State Opera Ballet. This couple, who just transferred from Mariinsky Theatre, also presented Romeo and Juliet Balcony Pas de Deux choreographed by Leonid Lavrovsky. Under the interpretation of this couple, Juliet's innocence and Romeo's blazing love were vividly depicted on the stage. They also presented Parting choreographed by Yuri Smekalove (a choreographer and actor of Mariinsky Ballet). With a chair as prop, they sketched out the impressing dance lines through concise dance language.

Rassemblement adopts African music as the background, highlights primitive limb movements. Photo by WANG Xiaojing

As stars of Berlin State Ballet, the Asian dancer Morina Kanno and Arman Grigoryan also selected two classical ballet works and a modern ballet work as the repertoire. Flames of Paris Pas de Deux is a permanent repertoire of various ballet galas. With Petitpa as choreographer, Talisman used to seldom appear on the domestic stage. With oriental style, Talisman vividly embodies two dancers’ neat movements and graceful lines. As choreographer Nacho Duato’s work, excerpt of Rassemblement adopts African music as the background, highlights primitive limb movements, and expresses humans’ eternal longing and unremitting pursuit for the freedom.

As principal dancers of Dortmund Ballet, Lucia Lacara and Marlon Dino brought about several rare works, i.e., The Lady of the Camellias (by the US choreographer Val Caniparoli), Light Rain (by Gerald Arpino) and Spiral Twist (by the popular British choreographer Russell Maliphant). These works, which test dancers’ pliability and body motions, seem to be especially selected by Lucia Lacara nicknamed as “toothpick”. In particular, Spiral Twist places the human body in multiple spaces, with full of experimental charms and rational thoughts.

TAN Yuanyuan, the highly-expected Chinese “Ballet Goddess”, presented two wonderful classic ballet highlights. As a member of San Francisco Ballet, she ever performed Giselle at NCPA Dance Festival 2015. Re-playing the role of Giselle integrating love and redemption, TAN Yuanyuan’s performance was still exciting. In Onegin Pas de Deux, she turned into innocent and pure Tatiana, and took advantage of dreamlike language to give vent to the desires for love and beauty. Choreographed by John Cranko, Onegin is always such a repertoire that Stuttgart Ballet takes pride in. Friedman Vogel was TAN Yuanyuan’s partner, who is principal dancer of Stuttgart Ballet. In recent years, as a highly-acclaimed star, Friedman made continuous lift, throwing and jumping in Onegin Farewell Pas de Deux, which was extreme test of strength and technique. In this way, he revealed Onegin’s love and craziness in thorough style.