What a Performance

Last Friday on the last few minutes towards the end of my class, a teacher suddenly popped up at the door. He asked our class whether any of us wanted to watch a performance on Sunday afternoon. When we asked what kind of performance it might had been, he actually did not know what it was exactly, he mentioned it was some kind of performance to welcome new students in Beijing.
Well, I thought that since I still had not have anything planned out for that day, I just went along then.
In the afternoon, we already gathered at the dorm lobby, ready to be transported to the so called 'performance'. It turned out that the teachers gave us a striking yellow T-shirt with our school name written on the back for all of us to wear. All student had to wear it or else could not join the ride. So all the gals who sighed that we had to wear that ugly shirts, had no choice but to put it on :p
After half an hour ride, finaly we arrived at a theather - I was kinda surprised. Because I had this thought that we were all going for outdoor performances where we had to stand under the sun. So it was kind of pleasant that we were going to be inside an air-con place - what a relief.
I was treated to another surprise, we were all distributed an entrance ticket each and the ticket could be use to claim for a mooncake (A kind of Chinese cake especially made to celebrate mid-autumn festival). What a good deal this thing turned out to be - we could enjoy a free performance and we still got a free mooncake =D When I saw the ticket, it had Kung Fu pictures printed on it. I thought to myself, it looked like we are going to see a Kungfu Martial Arts performance - not bad after all.
The performance was basically amazing. It essentially tells a story of a child who later becomes a Buddhist monk. There is no dialog in the show, hence it is told through the expression, the ballet dance, the acrobat and of course, through the martial arts performed by the actors. It is not the usual acrobatic or whatever martial art performances that I have ever seen before. I think the director is simply brilliant in combining the western style of theateritical performance with Chinese acrobatic and Martial arts.
I am amazed by the speed the props change, it is like in a blink of an eye - I know it is kind of exagerating. But it is true that the stage setting changes so fast without even pulling down the drapes - or is it only me that never saw any theater performances :p The theather is only darken to total blackness and when the light is up again, the stage is totally different. Of course, there is still the expected chinese acrobatic acts and martial arts like laying on bed of nails and so on. However, the way the story is told through the ballet-liked dances is no doubt a fresh injection in this kind of show. I really have to give two thumbs up for their skills and efforts. It is simply a performance that I wont forget.