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

Thursday 19 and Friday 20 January

Two Days in Shanghai

On Thursday we set off early for what we were told should be a 3-hour coach journey from Hangzhou to our hotel in Shanghai. En route the driver told me it would actually take 4½ hours. As the motorway sign I had just seen said 100 K to go, I felt that another 2½ hours was unlikely, I was proved very wrong and the driver was almost spot on. The traffic through Shanghai was chaotic and allowing for the 2nd coach getting lost, it did indeed take 4½ hours. The coach driver used the usual China trick and one of the guides got off, hailed a taxi and we followed it through the shambolic streets.

The Company went their various ways for the evening. Priority activity for the dancers was to go and see K-Ballet dancing Don Quixote at the Grand Theatre - read the review after the photos.

The other main activity was a boat trip on the Hang Po River which separates the city from the new business area called Pudong. The buildings, sights and lights were quite amazing. It was also possible to buy 4 Rolex watches and a Mont Blanc pen for the equivalent of £7 on the waterfront!!

Whilst some of us played, another drama was unfolding at the theatre. We had arranged for Lighting to be rigged the night before our arrival – it didn’t happen. When the equipment finally arrived some of the lights and cables were faulty and our computer disc with all the lighting cues wouldn’t work on their lighting board.

Contingency plans were made at some time after midnight and it was agreed that a proper technical rehearsal would have to be forsaken if we wanted to have any lighting for the performance. Not too much of a problem as it had only been 1 day since the last performance in Hangzhou and the dance space was similar.

On Friday morning the Lighting department set about completing a day’s work in under 5 hours. The new equipment arrived and was installed and the marathon task of focussing 10 bars of lighting commenced.

Whilst all this was going on at the theatre, the Company were taking class in a ballet school a couple of minutes from the hotel. So far so good. But they have no piano. No problem – we brought the electric one back from the theatre last night in the luggage compartment of the coach. The fun starts when we ask two Bellboys to take it across for us. They diced with death wheeling the piano across the 10 lane road – you take your life in your hands whenever you cross the road in Shanghai - and there are very few crossings with lights even though the crossing areas are marked with black and white lines, like our UK pedestrian crossings. Anyway, everybody disregards the traffic lights and you have to brave it out, walk in front of cars, buses, lorries and assume that they really won’t run you down.

The saga continued, the lift wasn’t working so the heavy piano was taken up 2 escalators into the studio. But it didn’t stop there – we eventually got it out of it’s box, bolted the legs on and then the lid jammed and try as we might we could not get it open and Craig (Edwards), our Company Pianist had to fit his hand into the space beneath the lid.

Class went well enough and was very much appreciated by the ballet school students who watched, and clapped at every exercise. I think the loudest cheer was when the boys all did double tours together.

After class we went to the theatre, (about 30 mins by coach) so that Daniel (de Andrade) could at least rehearse the pas de deux and give notes from the last performance in Hangzhou whilst the technicians continued to light around us.

Andy Waddington (Chief LX) and his team did a magnificent job and got the lighting cues plotted as quickly as possible and then there was just enough time to go through the scene changes (we hadn’t seen the flying cues work at this point.)

Despite the difficult day, the performance was superb. Jon and Desi gave a wonderful interpretation of their roles.

Having ordered starters and main courses, we waited for an interminable amount of time during which some starters arrived, and then some main courses, whilst some people had no food, others had two courses at the same time and some had main courses before starters!! Mercifully, the quality was good, even if the timing (and temperature) wasn’t. We finally realised that we were the guinea pigs for a youth training scheme!

This evening’s performance was again sponsored by Yorkshire Forward and was considered, by their guests to be a great success.

There was a good review from the newspaper in Hangzhou, so that was also pleasing, so we must be getting something right, although we have to take the word of the Chinese speakers !!

Another performance tomorrow and hopefully a trouble free day!! Then onwards to Beijing and undoubted further challenges!!

Mark Skipper
Northern Ballet Theatre Chief Executive