Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre


























Our add in front of the theatre

Royal Swedish Ballet at the Great Wall in China

After having a beautiful day off visiting the Chinese Great Wall the Company contnued to travel to Shanghai. Our theatre, the Oriental Arts Centre looks almost like the theatre in Beijing, just turned upside down. The stage is somewhat smaller but there is still place for all of us ;-)

The Performances in Beijing were very successful. The sponsors, the Swedish Embassador and the Agent were extremly satisfied with what the Company had to present. Our guest artists from Georgia Lali Kandelaki and her partner Vasil Akhmeteli made their first appearance in the last performance in Beijing and gave the first serie of performances a very energetic finish.

Rehearsal Video

The Guest artists Lali Kandelaki and Vasil Akhmeteli rehearsing Act 2 Pas de Deux

Beijing...more than half is done :-)

We are more than half way through the shows now. Everybody is really giving the best they can and it seems that the performances are getting better and better.
The Chinese mentality is very different to what we are usually used to and their English language skills seem only to get better when they intent to sell something. But in general, people try to be very helpful.
Anyway, two more shows to go before we are off to Shanghai :-)

Opening night is over

Opening night is over... It was a very different experience to perform in front of a chinese audience. Applauding is not really their strong side. Anyway it was a success for the company and definatly a nice experience to perform in front of 2500 people (in Stockholm we don't even have half of that!!!).
Already on opening night people start to have stomach problems. Let's hope this is not going to spread!

First day in China

Our first day in Peking was kind of calm...crazy too see such a big difference of rich and poor so close (as you can see on the picture, the area that is right beside the Grand National Theater in Beijing is not really spectacular)

Tomorrow is the first day with class and rehearsal...I am really curious how the theater looks from inside!