Saturday night we were invited by Aspecto Asia to a ballet performance from the Dutch group Introdans. The show was held in the classical Majestic Theater, one of the oldest theaters in Shanghai. It is a beautiful 1920's art deco style theater.
 
We had very good seats and enjoyed the performance very much. It was a mix of contemporary ballet and dance. In total 4 pieces were shown, of which the last one 'Bayadere' was the most impressive. This piece lasted for about 50 minutes and was based on the famous oriental fairy tale by Marius Petipa. Based on the length of the applause the audience also liked Ravel's Bolero very much.
As usual during performances in China many people took pictures with their cell phones, which is a bit annoying because they make a clicking sound and they light up when using them. The lady in the seat next to me took her little boy to the show, but she was not interested herself. I think she sent about 10 SMS messages during the first half of the performance. After the break she luckily did not come back anymore.
After the performance we had a chance to talk to the artistic directors and the dancers. They all look very young, although the youngest dancer was 20 years old, and the oldest 36. In total Aspecto had invited 20 people, and I talked to most of them. One was Pauline Krikke, she is mayor of the city of Arnhem, the place where I was born and spent some of my high school period. She told me that the city is going to change very much in the next years, almost 1/3 of the inner city will be demolished. Also they are going to build two skyscrapers there. Skyscrapers? In Arnhem? It used to be a small provincial capital. She told me to quickly go back there before everything is gone. It looks like the municipal government was inspired by Shanghai!
9:24:32 AM 
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