Showing @ Festival Theatre, 13 – 15 Aug @ 7:30pm

International Festival director Jonathan Mills’s stated aim this year is to bring together the cultures of East and West looking at how each has influenced the other. The National Ballet of China’s The Peony Pavilion provides him with the perfect example of this symbiosis, skilfully marrying the 16th Century story of transcendent love by Tang Xianzu to the elegant European form of classical ballet.

Choreographer Fei Bo, since joining the company in 2002, has built a reputation for mixing the formalism of ballet to the physicality of modern dance, and The Peony Pavilion certainly has moments of forceful modernism, particularly in its depictions of hell. But it’s the classical forms that dominate in this lushly romantic tale of dreams and magic.

The blending of European and Chinese culture continues with the music which borrows from both Kunqu Opera and the works of Holst, Ravel, Prokofiev and particularly Debussy to create an ethereal, otherworldly background for the dance.

The dancers themselves, especially the principals whose mixture of stillness and tortured wandering allow the audience if not to follow the plot, then at least to understand the emotional states conveyed.

Designer Michael Simon’s sets are sparsely beautiful, almost impressionistic, with blocks of colour flooding across acres of bare stage and so much of the mise-en-scène is taken over by the magnificent costumes from Oscar-winning designer Emi Wada.

As complex as it is beautiful The Peony Pavilion is, even with programme notes, difficult to follow as it journeys from dreams to reality to the mythic realms of Heaven and Hell featuring goddesses, fairies and alter egos. However adaptor and director Li Liuyi’s intention isn’t a straight retelling of Xianzu’s story but something more impressionistic that impacts less on the intellect and more on emotions; and in this he definitely succeeds.

The balance between East and West is judged perfectly here. The Chinese tale loses nothing of its exoticism or identity after being filtered through western artforms; and the poised grace of ballet proves a perfect match for the dreamlike narrative in this story of impossible love.