It is amazing how sometimes an amateur performance can be so breathtaking that a member of the audience will say, “That was even better than that show we saw by xyz” — xyz being whatever professional troupe this person has last seen.  I caught just such a performance over the weekend, with my friend saying it was better than many of the professional shows we’ve seen recently.  

Here’s how it happened…

On Saturday a friend and I decided to take another friend’s mother to a performance with us, as the other friend is currently overseas.  We both went thinking it would be nice to accompany our friend’s mom, and neither of us expected too much from the show.  With the first bit, it fit right in with expectation:  something fun, provoking a few laughs, but nothing particularly deep or meaningful.  But the second show….

It was a dance troupe performing a piece I would translate as “On Paper.”  The show began with some reflections on the history of humankind’s records.  It led us to think about how we write and draw, and how we keep the stories we create.  One of the dancers was paper personified, and his interaction with all of the other dancers was amazing.  In the end, he was swept off the stage by a robotic-style dancing team that seemed to embody electronic technology as the new medium to which we entrust the safekeeping of our cultural expressions.

I did not expect to see such a profound piece at the amateur performance.  After the show, I was fortunate enough to be approached by the choreographer.  He wanted some feedback, and asked if I would mind sharing what I thought.  We talked for some time, and he brought several of the performers and the director over to talk more.  I was very impressed to learn that they had only been practicing together for a couple of nights a week over the past couple of months. There was so much depth to the piece, and they carried it off well.

At the beginning of the routine, I was sucked right in when the dancer representing paper played out a number with another dancer who was the artist.  Their dance imitated martial arts movements, with the artist doing a very stylized dance with a calligraphy brush in hand.  It was very well done, and very meaningful.  I was impressed with the way this duo pulled it off.

Overall, there were a few marks here and there of an amateur troupe.  I am not sure I’d say the routine was better than the pros, exactly, but it was very well done, and very meaningful.  I am glad to have seen it, and would happily attend a second performance of it if given the chance.

The show was at the arts center on the corner of Shaanxi Lu and Jianguo Lu (sorry, I don’t have the English name).  There will be another performance next Saturday afternoon at 2 pm.  If you have the chance to pop by to see it, I think it is a very good way to spend a Saturday afternoon.