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Dream of Red Chamber choreographed by Zhao Ming with music composed by Su Cong, is an original grand scale spectacular. The dance is based on a very famous Chinese literary novel by Tsao Hsueh-Chin with complex families, characters and issues. Choreographer Zhao Ming focuses on the Rong Palace of Family Jia and divides the play into four acts.

The plot is complex but the work is driven by the main theme. The favourite character, Baoyu, meets Daiyu and Baochai and so begins a love triangle. Misunderstandings occur throughout the dance causing grief for Daiyu. The true love between Baoyu and Daiyu is severely tested and ends in disaster when Baoyu is tricked into marrying Baochi. Daiyu dies of a broken heart and Baoyu retreats into a monastery. In another world the two lovers are reunited.

“Jia” in Chinese has exactly the same pronunciation as “fake”, so the story of the Family Jia is the author’s use of metaphor to emphasise how difficult it is to understand the reality of what happens in this world.

The story starts with Baoyu and Daiyu dancing behind a see-through screen to create a dream-like affect. When the screen is lifted, we see the splendid family of Jia with beautiful flowery costumed ladies dancing like butterflies, and masculine gentlemen showing off their strength through superb technique.

It is a very colourfully designed act with more than 70 dancers on stage constantly, very busy and spectacular. It is, however, too crowded for the stage and unfortunately many beautifully designed group dances are unable to be seen clearly.  

After the opening act, with less elaborate stage sets, we are able to see more clearly and focus on performers and choreographies more easily.

The characters in Dream of Red Chamber have complicated personalities, each with their own carefully and successfully designed specific dance movements.  For instance, Baoyu is represented with playful movement sequences. Daiyu’s movement expresses proud, depressive and elegant bodylines, and Baochai’s signature is conveyed through confident and defined allegro.

The most impressive characteristic movement design is for Granny Liu played by Xue Gang (a male), with uncontrollable body and non-stop shaking head contrasting well with the controlled movement of the other dancers. This successfully demonstrates how old this granny is and that she is from a different rank in the society.

Although this is a traditional dance drama spectacular, both choreographer Zhao Ming and composer Su Cong attempt to give things a contemporary spin. There are jazz piano sounds in one of trios, and electrical rock-sound at the last act. Throughout the play, the choreographer blends Chinese traditional dances (at least four kinds), ballet, contemporary dance, and acrobatics. In the third and fourth acts, he adds a contemporary concept using dancers to represent flowers and the inner thoughts of Daiyu and Baoyu.

The most impressive device is when Baoyu marries Baochai, and Daiyu expresses her grief by pretending to dance with them. The emotion in the trio is strongly contrasting, with Daiyu devastated and Baochai the glorious bride. As the music switches between the wedding and Daiyu’s grief, the scene is given an eerie effect.

Dreams of Red Chamber is a well-designed and choreographed spectacular, and a great night of entertainment. If you are not Chinese or rarely have a chance to see a traditional Chinese production, it is a precious opportunity to see this amazing group of dancers with superb professional technique, performing a marvellously produced spectacular.   

As one who knows the story well, I could see that there were attempts to give the play different flavours and more character development, however, I did not feel this was entirely successful. From a contemporary point of view, I would like to see more depth given to character development and the music that accompanies individual characters, and perhaps less detail in stage sets.
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