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Scene from the Ballet "Red Detachment of Women"

Sunday was Women’s Day, and I celebrated by doing a stereotypically feminine thing -going to the ballet. The ballet was a revolutionary Communist creation titled the “Red Detachment of Women,” a propaganda piece that only mildly resembled classical Western ballet. If you are familiar with ballet, or recently seen the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, then you know that ballet is all about the lines. In this ballet, the dancers certainly had a line, but not what I would consider a classical ballet line. Rather, the lines were more rooted in tai ji and martial arts, and in some cases were dissolved all together when the ballet veered off in the direction of traditional Chinese folk dance. Of course at the time this ballet was created (it premiered in 1963 at the very same theater we went to on Sunday-wonder which seat Mao sat in…) the anti-rightest, anti-capitalist, and anti-West mentality was in full swing. Anything deemed bourgeois or Western was immediately labeled counter-revolutionary and banned. Ballet of course, is a typically Western art form, and the only way it survived in Maoist China was by radically changing the form and content. Although the most fundamental principles of ballet were retained, a lot was changed to purge its bourgeoisie nature. In fact, several dance moves were strictly prohibited, including the pas de deux and echappe. Also, using these French names was also banned. Grace and beauty, principle tenets of Western ballet, were replaced with strength and militarism. In fact, the dancers all underwent military training in order to rehearse the ballet. According the history of the ballet printed in the program, “An army general pointed out that the female dancers looked like women [no duh], not soldiers. They immediately stopped rehearsing and sent the dancers…for military training.” As result of this training, clenched fists replaced elegant hand movements, pirhouettes were sharp and precise, leaps were meticulously timed, and all throughout dancers were dressed in soldier’s uniforms carrying assorted weaponry -swords, handguns and long rifles. The most shocking moment of the ballet, given that it is indeed a ballet, is when the evil landlord is shot. As he staggers off into the horizon, half-dead, the Red Army steps into formation and shoots after him, firing simultaneously, shot after shot after shot. It was in the most literal sense of the word, overkill. Chairman Mao’s impression of the ballet also cracks me up. 方向是对的， 革命是成功的，艺术上也是好的。 “The direction was correct, the revolution was successful..the artistry was also good.” His last comment on the artistry seems a mere afterthought, which it probably was. We all know what Mao’s priorities were, and it was definitely not art or culture. But, despite the overtly communist connotations of the ballet, it was still highly entertaining and culturally enlightening. I would certainly place this ballet among the so-called 70% good that came out of Mao’s China.