China Diary

Arrival in China
First Performance in Hangzhou
A challenging day in Hangzhou
Two Days in Shanghai
Shanghai to Beijing
First Performance in Beijing
Final Two Days in Beijing

A challenging day in Hangzhou

Thursday 19 January

Today was an eventful day of highs and lows. The itinerary included, after company class, a session with the Hangzhou Song and Dance Troupe. The company’s understanding was that both NBT and the HSDT would perform pieces and then the Chinese ensemble would have a short class with Daniel and members of NBT. The group were quite late arriving and brought with them an entourage/ audience of about 25 people – so the large studio in the theatre suddenly seemed very crowded. It transpired that what the Chinese group really wanted was to learn a section of the I Got Rhythm choreography – having been told that this was what NBT would be performing.

After the usual introductory speeches and expressions of hope for future cultural interchange, the performance finally got going. Five of the HSDT– in full costume – performed three marvellously contrasting pieces, based on Chinese traditions, but each with a definitely contemporary flavour. The most spectacular was perhaps when a soloist built up to a whirlwind finale, balancing several rice bowls on her head. What’s the betting a member of the company will be tempted to try this after a few drinks in a restaurant before the end of the tour?

The Chinese pieces were interspersed with pieces from I Got Rhythm from NBT, and then the girls of HSDT joined members of the company to learn part of ‘An American in Paris’ – which they picked up remarkably quickly and performed it with the NBT boys with great flair.

This was a meeting of minds, and expression of mutual creative respect, from different cultures through the non verbal medium of dance, which was highly enjoyable and interesting for both participants and audience.

This evening, Leeds Metropolitan University, NBT’s new major sponsor, had arranged their corporate event at the theatre before the performance and were expecting about 70 guests. Everyone, including Arts & Business, who have invested in the partnership, was keen that the event should be a success for Leeds Met. It was therefore something of a worry that we had only been given a proportion of the sponsor’s guest tickets in advance; and when, half an hour before the performance it became apparent that a number of tickets had been misappropriated/ mislaid/ misdirected… anyway, were basically missing, Mark had to threaten somewhat drastic action to ensure that the situation was quickly resolved. Having made it clear that the show would not go up until our sponsor’s guests were properly seated (ie, in seats they had actually been allocated, with a good view of the stage), we were still receiving tickets in threes and fours five minutes before curtain up was due, and working with Leeds Met to hastily construct something approaching a seating plan.

Anyway, eventually the show did go up, the guests all got decent seats and it’s unlikely we’ll ever get to the bottom of the disappearing tickets. The performance was lovely (Chiaki Nagao and Hironao Takahashi danced the lead couple this evening) and Leeds Met’s evening was a success. No way to run a corporate event though and the only small comfort is in the hunch that, as much of Chinese business seems to be conducted on a ‘just in time’ basis, perhaps the Chinese guests were not as appalled at the palpable front of house chaos as we were.

It’s the last night in Hangzhou, so the crew and wardrobe had been preparing for the get-out, only to find when the show came down that the local crew were nowhere to be found. This realisation came hot on the heels of the news from the advance tech party in Shanghai that the work they’d been hoping to do in the theatre this evening in preparation for tomorrow’s fit-up could not go ahead as there was a show tonight. And then to complete a perfect evening, one of the buses broke down on the way to collect the company from the theatre, so we spent a hilarious twenty minutes trying to get the entire company onto a 35 seater coach. It was just beginning to dawn that on the not-going-to-happen-ometer, this was way off the scale, when the second coach appeared and we piled off again.

But finally, the day ended on some GOOD news… the company had won the Audience Award at the Critics' Circle Awards for the seond year in sucession. A sure aknowledgement of the high regard with which NBT is held.

Well… four days on tour in China and what a learning curve it’s been!

Tessa Gordziejko
Director, Arts & Business Yorkshire
Clore Fellow 2005 (Yorkshire Forward Funded)

(I’m on tour with the company wearing two hats – on behalf of Arts & Business, who have invested in this tour via New Partners programme, and as a mini secondment and case study within my Fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme.)