THE BUTTERFLY LOVERS

A standing ovation erupted from the full house audience for the Hong Kong Ballet producers, artistic creators, and performers of The Butterfly Lovers at the David H. Koch Lincoln Center Theater.

This modern ballet interpretation of an ancient folk tale dating back in Chinese culture to the 7th and 8th century, depicts a love story, family, and culture that still resonates … promoting ideals of women’s education, individual choice in marriage, and questions about societal conventions. 

A two act narrative, the story unfolds as the heroine, Zhu Yingtai (exquisitely danced throughout by Xuen Ching) portrays her role as the daughter of aristocratic parents who follow traditional expectations of women, up to a point. Her father’s deep love for her allows her to pursue an education (unheard of at the time), by impersonating a boy. While at school, she meets Liang Shanbo, a scholar, danced by Ma Renjie, who mistakes her as a fellow male student and develops a deep connection to the student.

The story continues as he discovers her true identity and their love blossoms, only to be thwarted as the parents demand that she return home from school to marry for fortune and status.  Their unrequited love continues as the parents have Liang Shanbo killed by an army of soldiers; and, rather than marry someone she doesn’t love, Zhu Yingtai throws herself into his grave. Now, they can love forever, reunited as “butterfly lovers” in eternity; the butterfly, delicate and elegant, symbolic of love, joy, good fortune, and longevity. 

This formidable two hour collaborative production is hosted by a team of all star artists: Choreographers: Hu Song Wei Ricky and Mai Jingwen; Music: Tian Mi; Set and Costume Design: Tim Yip (best known for a BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); Lighting Design: Yeung Tsz Yan; Video Design: William Kwok and Yicai Wang. Live music by the NYCB orchestra, conducted by Lio Kuokman.

Hong Kong Ballet dancers were sheer perfection in every ensemble piece, especially in Act II, where 14 men dressed in black boots, caps, and outfits with gold accoutrements,(costumes by Tim Yip) in the Battle of Men, accompanied by a dramatic rhythmic drumming score (Tian Mi), and gorgeous red back lighting (Yeung Tsz Yan), powerfully overwhelm the hero Liang Shanbo, with unison and canon lunges, stomps…arms slicing the air with swordlike swipes. He is left for dead, but with ingenious lighting and a costume change on stage, he rises, disrobes from his grey uniform to reveal a white undergarment.

As he turns his back to the audience and proceeds upstage to the white light and smoke waiting for him in death, his grey robe trails behind him, gradually falling away as he transitions to the next world. Tim Yip is to be congratulated for this very subtle storytelling through costuming. And… his ingenious set designs: a bridge that supports the two main characters as they meet and form a friendship; a makeshift “bed” that rises from the floor, easel-like, facing the audience, as it allows the dancers to lean against it, turn, and roll as if in bed together. And while one sleeps atop the bed, The Dream Pas de Deuxx, danced by Zhang Xuening and Yonen Takano, enacts the love affair that begins between the two sleepers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. 

This ensemble of exquisite, technical ballet dancers, with choreography based on traditional training, yet original and imaginative, especially in partnering work, music that tells a story, lighting, video, and sweeping set design (floor to ceiling panels that move from the sides of the stage to the center, changing space and time, steps that rise to heaven at the end, hanging sets that create a wedding scene), all enhance an age old story, full of pathos and beauty, life and death…and the delicacy of the butterfly representing the risks and fragility of love.

*All Photographs by Rosalie O’Connor

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman