Story: Xing Daiqi
Photo: Wang Xiaojing

A scene from Lady of the Camellias

One of the worlds most celebrated ballets is being staged in Beijing with 60 dancers from the Hamburg Ballet bringing Alexandre Dumas, fils 1848 tale Lady of the Camellias to life.

Adapted into a three-act ballet by John Neumeier in 1978 and tailor-made for prima ballerina Marcia Haydee, the work and its highly-acclaimed choreographer are hoping to touch Chinese mainland audiences with emotionally charged performances.

"The decoration is very simple, the costumes, however, are very evocative of the romantic period," Neumeier explained, meeting the press in Beijing on Feb. 1. "They make us dream of a time when people dressed in a very beautiful way...we have a story which has to do with the nearness of death and the compassion of another human being for this person."

Lady of the Camellias is a tragedy about a young man who falls in love with a courtesan, Marguerite. His father ends the affair and she dies of tuberculosis.

Neumeier's work premiered in 1978 and is set in 19th century Paris, but both choreographer and cast agree the story is still very pertinent today.

"The greatness of a work is that it does not have to be changed for someone else. It exists as a text," Neumeier, who is currently serving as Artistic Director of the Hamburg Ballet, said. "I believe that ballet as a dance is a living art, which means when I watch the rehearsal today and I correct these dancers today, I try to explain to them what I feel today about this work."

"We've been growing a lot with this ballet," added principal dancer Joelle Boulogne, who performs the role of Marguerite. "It's an amazing occasion to interpret this role. There is so much emotion for a woman to go through in this role. And it makes our heart rich."

Neumeier said that stories of human beings have always been the center of his dance.

"The greatest inspiration as I started to create this ballet was the novel of Alexandre Dumas, fils," he said. "I think the novel is much more modern because of the many layers of its indirect story-telling, its poetic power and the deeply human and completely modern aspects of its theme."

"I think this ballet has become a kind of modern classic because it uses the classical technique in a new way," he added. "The form is completely different from that of the ballets in the 19th century in which a single couple is usually featured as the most important thing of a ballet."

"In this work, it lives because of our ensemble, a group of characters, interacting between each other and our ensemble whose movement and whose function is also there to carry on the story."

Neumeier's Lady of the Camellias features Chopin's composition. "It must be Chopin because I saw a clear relationship between Chopins life and that of Marguerite, both of them were overshadowed by fatal disease," Neumeier explained.

"The composer as well as Marguerite led a kind of double life. As the focus of the Parisian salons, Marguerite is in demand as the most brilliant courtesans, while Chopin enchanted them with his music, at the same time both masking an imminent death," he added. "The base note of Chopin's music deeply and clearly expresses the main emotion of the story. So for me, it was a kind of scream of Hallelujah realizing what the music should be."

"I hope this may be something to make an impact on Chinese culture," commented Michael Kahn-Ackerman, head of the Goethe-Institute China. He said performing arts need revitalizing and he hoped Lady of the Camellias would have a positive impact in Beijing.

"Ten years have gone by since our first tour of China, Chinese society is changing in its attempt to keep abreast with the dynamics of its own economical development. This 'movement in time and space' is also the primary essence of dance," Neumeier said.

Born in Wisconsin in the United States in 1942, Neumeier received his dance training in his hometown before moving to Europe where he received international recognition as a great dancer and choreographer. He has been director of the Hamburg Ballet since 1973, dedicating his life to the preservation of the ballet tradition, while giving it a modern dramatic framework.

"Ballet faced a kind of crisis in the 20th century, becoming something like an old-fashioned museum art. There are some people who turned and overcame this problem and one of the most noticeable among them is John Neumeier," Kahn-Ackerman added.

"You'll see a great variety in my works because my own education was both in ballet and in modern dance in America," Neumeier elaborated. "I think the most important thing to understand in my work or any work is the difference between technique and creation. The technique is the instrument to be free to make creation. And I think the future of ballet is only through creation. Only when something new is made now, will this art continue."


Learn more about Lady of the Camellias