Performers bring China's myths to Delaware stage
By Christopher Yasiejko
The News Journal
January 20, 2006
The season of our very recent past, that of wreaths and evergreen trees and mistletoe, each year lends to Radio City Music Hall an air of leggy seduction known as The Rockettes.
A few weeks afterward, in this and in each of the past two years, Yung Yung Tsuai watches from a seat in the front row as about 50 people perform a very different but no less intriguing brand of dance.
Tsuai, who at 58 is a renowned dancer in her own right, observes with objective eyes.
"As a choreographer," she says, "you need to be objective to see whether what you created is working with the audience."
She brings about 30 of those performers Tuesday to The Grand Opera House, where at 7:30 p.m. they will begin "Myths and Legends," an amalgam of song and dance set to a storyline that pits good against evil in a manner befitting the mythology it represents.
It's part of the 2006 Chinese New Year Global Gala, sponsored by New Tang Dynasty Television, a nonprofit independent Chinese language network based in New York. Wilmington is one of 15 cities worldwide that plays host to the gala.
Tsuai's family made its way from China to Taiwan more than a half-century ago during her native land's Communist revolution. In Taiwan, at the age of 5, Tsuai began practicing traditional Chinese folk dance and Chinese opera dance. As a young woman, she earned a scholarship to the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance in New York City, and Tsuai has had a hand in her native and adoptive cultures ever since.
Visitors to Tuesday's show can expect traditional and modern Chinese music, along with some Western classical.
During last year's Global Gala, Tsuai performed onstage in a dance titled "Turning an Iron Rod to a Needle." The number needed someone to play the character of an older woman. This year's story, called "Nine Swords," includes a red dragon representing evil and its opposition, nine swords representing truth. It doesn't require Tsuai's participation, but she's no less a part of the production.
She hopes her choreography affects her audience.
"It can open their minds and their hearts to bridge the gaps of the cultures," she says.
For ticket information, call 215 -5281711 or visit www.gala.ntdtv.com