Review: NATIONAL BALLET OF CHINA'S CHINESE NEW YEAR at Kennedy Center

Wednesday, January 29 was the start of the lunar new year, the cultural and, for some, religious, holiday celebrated in South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and of course China, among others. The fifteen-day festival is filled with traditions, and in the Chinese zodiac, 2025 is the year of the snake. Thus it was with great fanfare and symbolism that the National Ballet of China’s return to the Kennedy Center took place Wednesday, with performances of Chinese New Year, a reimagining of The Nutcracker story. 

Kennedy Center guests were welcomed by President Deborah Rutter and current Chinese Ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, who noted the power of art and artistic exchange to bring nations closer together. Given the current tensions between the two countries, this seems like a laudable, if difficult, goal. Indeed, members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cast doubt on this goal in a letter to Ms. Rutter, suggesting that presenting the National Ballet of China makes the Kennedy Center complicit in any and all negative acts the CCP may be responsible for, such as artistic repression of Chinese artists. 

While I’m sympathetic to the argument that art can be propaganda, the clever and thoughtful work shown had deep artistic merit and only seemed to have an agenda to showcase a cast of stunning, highly musical dancers. I confess I wasn’t interested in the concept of the work before I saw it; using the classic score of The Nutcracker seemed like a silly ploy to appeal to American audiences. But I was proven wrong again and again, as the production found ways to breathe new life into music I’ve heard hundreds of times. 

Directed and choreographed by Zhao Ming, Chinese New Year opens on a fair, with dancers gaily playing and showing excitement for the impending festival. From the opening moments and throughout the evening, the costumes are beautiful - colorful, body-hugging dresses, cute winter socks and scarves and masks of chinese characters and zodiac animals. 

The action proceeds indoors to the family home of Yuanyuan, a young girl who receives a nutcracker as a gift, mirroring Clara in the classic tale. From there, the story pivots into a uniquely Chinese tale full of symbols from lunar new year traditions. Instead of fighting mice, she encounters Nian, a mythical beast central to Chinese New Year who can be warded off by wearing red and loud noises, like from drums and firecrackers. Snow are replaced by elegant cranes, with flirty tutus longer in the back like plumage. 

Throughout the evening we see kite flying, porcelain, fans, silk and other emblems of Chinese culture and artistic output. The dancers were nimble, almost appearing to fly through petit allegro steps, with rounded arms sweeping overhead. Reading the program it seems National Ballet of China dances a combination of Chinese and Western choreographers; I would love to see their Bournonville works in particular, given their unique ability to bring strength and air to dainty steps. On rare occasions I heard a little pointe shoe noise, but this was minor and I was often distracted - even transported - by the dancers’ epaulement and unity onstage. 

Overall it was a moving spectacle and introduced me to elements of Chinese culture that were less familiar, like candied haw fruit. The sheer number and complexity of set pieces, costumes and dancers was impressive; kudos to the Kennedy Center’s operations team for getting all of it to DC. I hope visits by National Ballet of China will become more frequent so we can see the range of what they can do. 

Performances run through Sunday, February 2

Runtime: 2 hours with one intermission

To post a comment, you must register and login.