Epoch Arts 2-26-2016

SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS; NEOTAKEZO/ISTOCK LANDSCAPE

China in Motion Telling the story of 5,000 years of culture through grace, dynamism, and expression in classical Chinese dance.

JOAN B MIRVISS LTD

Asia Week Sneak Peak Japanese artists explore cultural legacy, memory, and tragedy.

See C2

See C7 COURTESY OF JORGEN WADUM

C1 Feb. 26–March 3, 2016

T H E M A N W HO K NOWS T H E

‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’

Jorgen Wadum cleans the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” as the chief conservator at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, in 1994.

M O S T I N T I M AT E LY The in si ght s of c on s er vator Jor gen Wa dum

By Milene Fernandez | Epoch Times Staff

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EW YORK—It’s as if he had walked through a forest without making a sound, hardly leaving a trace. Through a three-month journey of examining, cleaning, and repairing every square inch—one at a time—professor Dr. Jorgen Wadum contributed to revealing the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” in all her splendor for the whole world to see. Twentytwo years after the latest restoration and he is still most intimately connected to that iconic painting by the 17th-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.

He had to mimic an out-of-focus image to make you feel a stronger emotional attachment to that painting.

“I’ve been up, poking my nose at her when I was in the Mauritshuis museum not too long ago, and I think she still does it brilliantly,” Wadum said a day before his lecture on perspective and painting techniques at The Frick Collection on Feb. 3.

But what is it that the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” has been doing so brilliantly for over 350 years, during her intermittent displays?

Often referred to as “the Mona Lisa of the north,” it’s also a simple composition. The gaze of the girl captured in a moment, the lack of any reference to place or knowledge of who she was or why she was wearing such an enormous pearl, renders her enigmatic. The painting invites you to invent whatever story you want to project on to the girl.

Jorgen Wadum

See Conservator on C4

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February 26–March 3, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

BEARING, TECHNIQUE, & FOR M

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NTD T EL E V ISION SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS

China Motion in

Telling the story of 5,000 years of culture through grace, dynamism, and expression in classical Chinese dance

By Catherine Yang | Epoch Times Staff

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elestial maidens in heaven, scholars playing a drinking game, China’s longest reigning emperor, the ruffians of the Cultural Revolution, the legendary and supernormal Monkey King— these are just a few of the characters Shen Yun

Form is what really makes this a culturally Chinese art.

THROCKMORTON FINE ART

Performing Arts brings to life in its current global tour.

By portraying grand concepts like creation or simple, universal feelings like joy and sadness or even the experience of mild annoyance, these characters are brought to life with feeling. The ability to portray such a wide range of human—and nonhuman—beings owes to the enormous expressiveness of classical Chinese dance.

While the thousands-of-years-old form is not yet widely known in the Western world, New York-based Shen Yun has been pioneering a sort of renaissance. In the short 10 years Shen Yun has been around, it’s burgeoned from one to four companies of equal size, performing all-new programs around the globe each year.

This year’s program features some 11 performances of classical Chinese dance, along with performances of ethnic or folk dance, bel canto vocal solos, and an erhu solo.

Audiences can see that classical Chinese dance combines dynamic leaps, flips, and other aerial techniques with a gentle elegance, and can even be moved to tears by the performance. But they may leave the theater wondering at what the inner springs of this powerful art form are.

On its website, Shen Yun helps audiences go deeper. It divides the discipline into three main categories: form, technique, and bearing.

Sparks of Excitement The most recognizable aspect of these three may be the TECHNIQUE.

C L A S S IC AL CHINESE DANC E “DANCE IS ONE PART of human culture. Classical Chinese dance is grounded in 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture and is a dance art form built upon a deep foundation of traditional aesthetics. Classical Chinese dance is rich with expressive power. Through expression of bearing and form, beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, mental state, one’s value system, and so on.”

SOURCE: SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS

SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS

N O R T H E R N DYN A S T I E S E a r l y C h i n e s e B u d d h i s t S c u l p t u re Ca. 386-577 CE

March 3rd - April 23rd, 2016

Shen Yun Performing Arts

Catalogue available: Northern Dynasties, $50.00 Image: Head of Buddha, Northern Wei, 386-534 CE, Limestone, H: 16 in.

145 East 57th Street, 3rd. NY, NY 10022 Tel. 212 223 1059 Fax. 212 223 1937 Info@throckmorton-nyc.com www.throckmorton-nyc.com

The performances include some 20 vignettes, many of which are classical Chinese dance.

Lincoln Center David H. Koch Theater Tickets Online: ShenYun.com/NYC Hotline: 800-818-2393 Running Time 2 hours, 15 minutes (one intermission)

Date & Time March 2, 3, & 4 at 7:30 p.m.

March 5 at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

March 6 at 1:30 p.m.

March 9, 10, & 11 at 7:30 p.m.

March 12 at 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

March 13 at 1:30 p.m.

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February 26–March 3, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts PHOTOS BY NTD TELEVISION

In trying to revive traditional culture, we have to comply with its values and thinking. Our ‘returning to the traditional’ can’t just be for show.

Classical Chinese dance is full of aerial techniques like the si cha (an airborne split).

Yungchia Chen, dancer and choreographer, Shen Yun

We recognize the walkovers and handsprings in gymnastics, the flying leaps and spinning kicks in martial arts, the impossible flexibility in acrobatics, the no-hands corkscrews, cartwheels, and dynamic twists of parkour—strikingly athletic forms that are hard-landing versions of its more elegant predecessor, classical Chinese dance.

These are, however, not actually found in other dance styles. And this is just one feature of the dance that is unique.

As Shen Yun explains, these highly difficult techniques have two classifications. First you have techniques where one is “flipping the body,” but it is not necessarily an actual flip. These are “turning movements wherein the waist is the axis and the dancer’s torso is slightly tilted.”

One of these techniques is the “fan-shen,” which literally means turning over the body.

The dancer’s legs are upright, propelling the dancer into a spin, but the torso is tilted so that the arms are stretched on a vertical plane, spinning nearly parallel to the legs. Done right, everything looks like a blur, according to former principal dancer Alison Chen’s blog post.

It’s a versatile move that can be done fast, slow, stationary or across the stage, or even on only one leg. You can even throw in other movements, she wrote, including one where you “rotate a full circle while being completely airborne AND lopsided.”

The second classification is aerial or tumbling techniques: the flips, high jumps, and leaps. Like the “si cha,” where you perform a perfect split in midair; or the walkover that requires a dancer to kick into a handstand, do an upside-down split, and land on one leg at a time before catching a handkerchief she threw into the air a second ago.

It is no wonder theatergoers feel it’s reminiscent of martial arts.

In one vignette this year, the Monkey King tests out an array of weapons the Dragon King lays down at his disposal. He effortlessly wields two types of spears, a large broadsword, and a staff—but with the grace and elegance consistent to the dance.

Classical Chinese dance actually developed alongside martial arts over the millennia, spawned from the same roots and developed over time for very different purposes, according to Shen Yun. Whereas martial arts is dictated by practicality, classical Chinese dance is aesthetic; a performing art form used to entertain.

Form and Method Now, FORM is what really makes this a culturally Chinese art.

“Its [form’s] literal meaning is really just method,” said award-winning Shen Yun dancer and choreographer Michelle Ren, in a mini-documentary on classical Chinese dance, as she demonstrated the simple but exact way of moving her hand in a mere circle. “How your hand moves up, how it makes a circle, how it moves downward; how the body moves, how the head, hand, and eyes move. How to use one’s breath, and eventually where one eventually rests, and how to relax.” It is all exact.

The same move performed by the Lady of the Moon, Chang’E, is different when mirrored by her husband, the legendary archer Hou Yi.

NTD TELEVISION

There are movements and postures specific to the dance form, and distinctly Chinese. For instance, the female dancers take quick half steps across the stage that make them appear to float. Or the dancers sometimes retain “orchid palm” hand postures—a molding of the hands into a shape meant to evoke orchids—in some of the dances.

Throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, each dynasty had its own imperial court dances, and form has been passed down to the public and courts through these dances, plays, and performances.

So classical Chinese dance has developed into an independent dance system, one of the most comprehensive in the world alongside ballet.

Ms. Li Caie, an elderly dancer and dance instructor who has been honored as a national treasure of Taiwan, caught one of Shen Yun’s earlier global tour performances in 2009.

“The female dancers’ performance was like a gentle breeze blowing in spring, while that of the male dancers demonstrated their masculinity. The strength and beauty of classical Chinese dance presented by Shen Yun deserves to be emulated,” she said. She was inspired to call on the generation of young dancers to hone their skills and emulate the success of Shen Yun dancers.

Tony Award-winning Broadway producer and classically trained dancer Elan McAllister saw a performance that same year in New York and was amazed by what she called a “delicate quality” in the dance.

“It’s just beautiful, it’s lush, the movement is enchanting. I am amazed at just how delicate it is and clean and pure. It’s something really so simple and yet there’s something so deep and rich about the movements.”

“I think you can really see how the dancers feel every movement that they are doing. You can see how it comes from a deeper place.” She said these dancers “are so connected with their movements that it’s like breathing. It looks so effortless and so organic to them, it looks like it’s just a part of them.”

Imbued With Spirit This deeper meaning Ms. McAllister and so many other audience members feel is integral to the dance most likely comes from the last but very vital part of classical Chinese dance: BEARING.

Many movements are based on “flipping the body” in a way where the waist is an axis and the torso is slightly tilted.

Bearing is similar to inner spirit. Shen Yun defines it as consisting of “internal spirit, breath, intent, personal aura, and deep emotional expression.”

It is what makes the hand motion of a mere circle a different one from person to person, as each person has a different and unique bearing.

In dance, these are no longer formulaic movements, but portrayals of character.

The same move performed by the Lady of the Moon, Chang’E, is different when mirrored by her husband, the legendary archer Hou Yi. Because Shen Yun’s dances all tell stories, whether they are adapted from events thousands of years ago, legends and myths, poems and novels, or events today, at first glance it seems characterization would of course be an integral part of the dance. But it was not always so.

In China today, under communist rule, the dance still exists in form, but not spirit.

Dancers can be perfectly trained in the physical sense, but not taught how to incorporate bearing, or the philosophy behind the arts. Versions of the dance often incorporate modern concepts in order to fall in line with communist ideology, which shuns traditional morality.

Several choreographers explained among many things, in a video, how they came to Shen Yun in New York. Many were dancers of critical acclaim back in China, and noticed right away the very critical difference Shen Yun took to classical Chinese dance. That is, without bearing, it is not truly classical Chinese dance.

“In essence, the spirit leads form, so that form is imbued with spirit,” the website states.

Traditional Chinese culture emphasized principles such as reverence for the heavens, virtue, and that good is rewarded and evil is punished. People strove to embody benevolence, honor, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity. In order to capture the core of this culture, the artists found they needed to elevate themselves as well.

Accomplished dancer and choreographer Yungchia Chen talked about his experience when he joined Shen Yun in 2007, just one year after the company was founded.

“Being a part of Shen Yun has been a process of elevation for my body and soul. In trying to revive traditional culture, we have to comply with its values and thinking. Our ‘returning to the traditional’ can’t just be for show. The ancient Chinese had great faith and respect for the divine. As modern people, we have to change the way we think, and purify our minds bit by bit,” he said in the interview posted on the Shen Yun website.

And audiences can feel it.

Alice Celine and Robert Walters have tried to make it to Shen Yun for the last three years.

Upon finally seeing it this January, Ms. Celine said, “It was absolutely remarkable. It’s transformative.”

“I feel like it was reaching out to the soulful side of people and coming closer to what we all consider to be God or goodness, and to pull that out of ourselves and to stand up to that,” she said.

In 2012, Miss India International, Preity Uupala, saw Shen Yun in Los Angeles.

“It was so magical and colorful. I didn’t realize China was so diverse,” she said, “There were so many different regions with different music and costumes. It gives the viewer an amazing perspective about China. Much bigger than what we think of.”

“It’s very inspiring and very spiritual. Some of the pieces, I just closed my eyes and I felt like it was a meditation. The energy was very powerful in the room. It’s not just some dance and music, it’s more than that. It’s very healing actually,” Ms. Uupala said.

“I look forward to watching this show many more times.”

During the 2016 season, Shen Yun will make stops in over 100 cities worldwide. For more information about Shen Yun, visit ShenYun.com

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February 26–March 3, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts PHOTOS COURTESY OF JORGEN WADUM

T H E M A N W HO K NOWS T H E

‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ M O S T I N T I M AT E LY The in si ght s of c on s er vator Jor gen Wa dum Conservator continued from C1

There was a sense that old master paintings should look like a painting that had been hanging in a room of directors drinking cognac and smoking big cigars.

SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

Jorgen Wadum, director of conservation, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

The director of the Mauritshuis Museum, Emilie Gordenker, described it so succinctly when she said in the documentary film “Exhibition on Screen: Girl with a Pearl Earring” that the painting is more a portrait of a relationship than of a person.

Novels have been written about it—like Tracy Chevaliers’s work by the same title—as well as movies and documentaries. One only has to see all the images of the countless people imitating this tronie (a 16th-century Dutch term for a character study) to witness her universal appeal.

With concentrated precision, using the same microscopes that surgeons use, Wadum prolonged her life further, so that people from around the world could continue to be enamored.

“I am very happy that the pigments and the binding media—that we mixed in with the pigment—are not discoloring, they are staying,” he said.

Wadum looked at every brushstroke Vermeer had made.

“I can wake up in the middle of the night, and I can see parts of a painting, its brushstrokes, and how they were overlapping,” he said.

Wadum possibly may even understand Vermeer’s paintings in ways that Vermeer himself was not con-

1 Partially cleaned of the old varnish.

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sciously aware of while creating it. For example, he knew how many hairs from Vermeer’s paintbrushes had been left in the wet paint to be discovered centuries later.

Putting the Pieces Back Together Again In his 20s when Wadum wasn’t quite sure what career path to take, he worked in a porcelain factory painting flowers and was rather bored.

When he went on a road trip hitchhiking with his girlfriend at that time, they had a car accident of which he was the sole survivor.

Remembering his three-month stay in the hospital, he said, “I had ample time to get my broken arms and legs put together again, and I decided that I should probably concentrate on something a little bit more intellectual than just painting flowers on vases.”

Fast-forward some years later and he was putting the pieces together of old masters’ paintings, which would take about the same amount of time to restore that it took for his body to recover from the tragic accident.

The combination in conservation of aesthetics, art history, and the scientific understanding of materials was the perfect mix for keeping Wadum interested.

“The way the old masters mixed the materials fascinated me, not just repairing damage, but understanding the aging of old materials, how damage appears, understanding why it cracks and eventually falls off, or falls apart, and what you can do while still respecting the integrity of the artwork, even if you can come up with all kinds of fancy materials to fill it up and paint it over,” he said.

Cleaning Controversies The art conservation field may seem like a hermetic, mysterious world controlled by a tightknit cohort of experts. But when Wadum was restoring the “Girl with the Pearl Earring” in

1994, he was in a climate-controlled glass room in full view of the public.

The entire process was transparent. While an international committee of experts would ensure that everything was going according to plan, everything was explained openly in a constant dialogue with the public.

The conservators had learned from the past and did not want to trigger any kind of public uproar.

Of the two ends of the conservation spectrum, southern Europe tended towards not necessarily removing all aged and yellowed varnish, however, retouching everything that had been damaged—considering the art works like archaeological fragments of the past. On the other end, northern Europe tended towards cleaning off all the varnish from previous restorations and retouching to get as close as possible to how the artist originally intended for it to look. In other words, the southern approach would allow signs of aging to show the inevitability of decay, while the northern approach would consider the artwork as a living artifact that should look as close to the original as would be safe to realize during treatment.

While the methods of varnish removal are the same from north to south, Wadum explained that the fine line of how far to go varies and is rather slippery.

“Because what is that layer that stays? Is it the original varnish, or is it just the residues from varnish that was purely dissolved but not taken away? Would it be the more insoluble parts that are staying and may well be, over time, cross-linked further and be yet further insoluble, and therefore pose a problem in the future?” he said.

In the early part of the 20th century a romanticized notion that old master paintings should have a rather yellowish tonality—

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February 26–March 3, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES

1. The painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” circa 1665–1667, by Johannes Vermeer after it was restored in 1994.

The older you grow the more you realize how little you actually do know.

2. Fragment of the painting, “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” showing the cleaning process during its restoration at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, in 1994.

3. Professor Dr. Jorgen Wadum, director of conservation at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, talks about his art conservation work, including the restoration of the “Girl with a Pearl Earring,” at Big Apple Studios in New York on Feb. 3.

Jorgen Wadum

4. Detail showing the pinhole left in the painting “The Music Lesson,” circa 1662– 1664, by Johannes Vermeer.

5. “The Music Lesson” with receding perspective lines to the vanishing point, where Vermeer left a pinhole in the canvas.

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4 as seen in the Mona Lisa for example—prevailed until the 1960s. “There was a sense that old master paintings should look like a painting that had been hanging in a room of directors drinking cognac and smoking big cigars,” Wadum said.

Cleaning controversies, heated debates, and struggles to influence public opinion have resurfaced over centuries. Wadum believes museum directors of the past had been been anxious about cleaning off the yellow varnish, fearing uproar from intellectuals who still maintain the painting-in-a-smokyroom notion, or who didn’t want to absorb the cost of having to clean a museum’s entire collection in order to keep it consistent.

“Since the 19th century western culture has been aestheticizing decay so much that a yellow varnish was considered as part of the original,” Wadum said.

But the yellow varnish can be damaging, as it becomes more acidic over time. It ages differently than paint, becoming stiffer and gripping on the surface layers of paint. So it could peal off the paint to some degree, Wadum explained.

Wadum takes the approach of removing all of the varnish from previous restorations and repairing damages to the point of coming as close as possible to the artist’s intent, despite how speculative it may be to really know the original. But that does not mean using materials that are identical to the original, for the so-called plastic surgery.

He used reversible materials that can be easily removed without having to use strong solvents in the future. “So if in 50 or 100 years time, for whatever reason, you would want to remove whatever we had added and want to make a new restoration, you could do that without any risk to the original paint,” he said.

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I know that in 17 of his paintings there is a pinhole in the vanishing point.

Jorgen Wadum

WATCH A VIDEO of Wadum’s talk at The Frick Collection: ept.ms/ WadumAtFrick

Pin and String Argument As an expert of Vermeer experts, Wadum has gathered several insights on the painter’s methods. He’s certain the artist did not use a camera obscura, as other scholars have alleged, or as the inventor Tim Jenison raves about in the film, “Tim’s Vermeer.”

“I know that in 17 of his paintings there is a pinhole in the vanishing point,” Wadum said.

“There must have been a small needle sitting there with a piece of string hanging around it.

While painting he could take that string in one hand and make sure that the receding lines were all going to the vanishing point. That was the method of many artists at the time. Almost all of them did it when they wanted to make a good perspective,” he said.

That simple pinhole discovery alone is enough to discombobulate anybody set on the postulation that Vermeer depended on a camera obscura to create accurate perspectives.

“There are some people who hate me for that,” Wadum said. Wadum wrote a review on Philip Steadman’s book, which is titled “Vermeer’s Camera: Uncovering the Truth behind the Masterpieces.” Steadman’s website shows he was not happy about Wadum’s criticism.

“When you start with a book title that says ‘the truth’ of something that happened 350 years ago, then you are begging for trouble, and I gave him trouble,” Wadum said with a little smile.

Wadum doesn’t think that Vermeer painted fuzzy around the edges because the painter was tracing and mimicking what he would see through an old lens of a camera obscura.

He also believes the artist would have used the simplest and most efficient means to create such convincing perspectives, instead of having to trace the upside down and reversed image seen with a camera obscura, and then

have to reproduce it right side up and rereversed on the canvas.

Wadum believes that while Vermeer was probably aware of the existence of the camera obscura, the painter was probably more influenced by Leonardo da Vinci’s writings on the perception of seeing and on “sfumato”—on creating soft transitions instead of sharp contours.

“I think Vermeer was a fairly energetic painter, but extremely slow in deciding when to finish a painting. He made breaks and would then come back again. He could make short cuts, but he could also over paint, tediously, because he knew exactly what he wanted,” Wadum said.

In the case of the “Girl with the Pearl Earring,” Wadum explained that especially the eyes are in perfect focus, while the rest of the painting is more or less fuzzy. He believes Vermeer understood that our eyes naturally search for what is in focus and therefore he knew how to guide the viewer.

“He had to mimic an out-of-focus image to make you feel a stronger emotional attachment to that painting,” he said. And indeed we are drawn to look straight into the girl’s eyes to reflect on our own inner state.

Despite the simple elegance of discovering 17 pinholes, Wadum was humble9about it, as he said at the end of the interview, “The older you grow the more you realize how little you actually do know.”

Professor Dr. Jorgen Wadum is the director of conservation at the Statens Museum for Kunst and of the Center for Art Technological Studies and Conservation (CATS) in Copenhagen.

From 1990 to 2004 he was the chief conservator at the Mauritshuis, The Hague. He has written several published books and lectures internationally on technical art history and cultural heritage.

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February 26–March 3, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts PAVEL ANTONOV

March 3 at 7 p.m.

National Opera Center 330 Seventh Ave. An exclusive opportunity to be part of an intimate conversation led by OPERA America President and CEO Marc A. Scorca with acclaimed soprano Sondra Radvanovsky as she shares stories from her career and discusses her interests, influences, and her history-making performances this season of Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy. $25. OperaAmerica.org

Conversation With

Sondra Radvanovsky THINGS TO DO

COMMUNITY EVENTS NEW IN MANHATTAN

A Real Legend March 5 at 8 p.m.

656 W. 125th St. The Cotton Club proudly presents a tribute to Dick Gregory: comedian, actor, author, activist, and health expert. Includes special performance tribute by Curtis B Sterling. $40 for show, $75 for dinner and show.

Cotton Club: 212-663-7980, Curtis B Sterling: 917-808-7573, and M. Peavy: 917-685-6522.

CottonClub-NewYork.com

NEW ELSEWHERE

NEW IN MANHATTAN

Neighborhood Concert: Brown Rice Family Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m.

LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, 31-10 Thomson Ave., Queens Brooklyn-based world roots band Brown Rice Family is a high-energy, eight-member ensemble that combines an eclectic mix of musical influences encompassing reggae, hip-hop, Brazilian, Afrobeat, jazz, rock, Latin, and funk.

Free. LPAC.nyc

Northern Dynasties, Early Chinese Buddhist Sculpture March 12 at 3 p.m.

Throckmorton Fine Art 145 E. 57th St., Third Floor Lecture by Dr. Qing Chang.

Exhibition runs March 3–April 23.

ThrockMorton-NYC.com

VISUAL ARTS

ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Patterns of Plants Through Feb. 28 Noguchi Museum, 9-01 33rd Rd. (at Vernon Boulevard) Internationally celebrated

Advertise in Manhattan’s

Classiest Arts & Style Section

pianist Sarah Cahill will take up residence, performing Mamoru Fujieda’s stunning cycle of short pieces titled “Patterns of Plants” throughout the Noguchi Museum’s opening hours in the ground-floor galleries. General admission $10. Noguchi.org

ONGOING ELSEWHERE Greater New York Through March 7 MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Ave., Long Island City, Queens MoMA PS1 presents the fourth iteration of its landmark exhibition series, begun as a collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art in 2000. Recurring every five years, the exhibition has traditionally showcased the work of emerging artists living and working in the New York metropolitan area. Suggested $10. MoMAPS1.org

PERFORMING ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN All Balanchine II Feb. 27 at 2 p.m.

David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center The Company draws upon its vast Balanchine repertory to exhibit some of his most luminous works. Walpurgisnacht Ballet, Sonatine, Sonatine, Symphony in C ballet matinees. $60–$170. NYCBallet.com Don Pasquale March 4–18 30 Lincoln Center Plaza Donizetti’s lighthearted farce stars celebrated debutante soprano Eleonora Buratto, tenor Javier Camarena, a new king of the high Cs, and baritone Ambrogio Maestri, the recent and unforgettable Met Falstaff— an ideal team for this comic romp. Otto Schenk’s 2006 production provides a colorful backdrop. Maurizio Benini conducts. From $25.

MetOpera.org

ENDING IN MANHATTAN Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci Through Feb. 26 Metropolitan Opera Opera’s indomitable double bill returns in Sir David McVicar’s searing production from the 2014–15 season. Tenor Yonghoon Lee and mezzosoprano Violeta Urmana star in Cavalleria Rusticana, the tragedy of ancient codes and illicit love, Sicilian style. From $25.

MetOpera.org

call 212-239-2808 or email: advertisenow@epochtimes.com

Astoria Stories Through Feb. 27 Astoria Performing Arts Center, 30-44 Crescent St., Astoria, Queens Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Ave., Astoria, Queens

A festival of short plays and musicals paying homage to Astoria Performing Arts Center’s home. $10.

APACNY.org NYTB in Legends & Visionaries 2015 Through Feb. 27 New York Live Arts, 219 W. 19th St. New York Theatre Ballet will present three ballets set to Philip Glass’s “Piano Etudes,” Jerome Robbins’ “Antique Epigraphs” staged by Kyra Nicols to Debussy’s “6 Épigraphes antiques”, and Richard Alston’s “Such Longing” set to “Mazurkas” by Frédéric Chopin.

From $15. NewYorkLiveArts.org

NEW ELSEWHERE Moscow Festival Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet/ Carmen Suite March 5 at 8 p.m.

Brooklyn Center Whitman Theatre, 2900 Avenue H, Brooklyn The power of love and the finality of death collide as two of the greatest tragic masterpieces of all time are re-invented in this double-bill of one-act ballets.

The program begins with a restaging of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” set to the music of Tchaikovsky and choreographed by legendary Bolshoi principal dancer Elena Radchenko. This is followed by Alberto Alonso’s fiery “Carmen Suite,” inspired by Bizet’s sensuous and spirited opera. $36-$45. BrooklynCenter.org

ONGOING ELSEWHERE The Cherry Orchard Through Feb. 27 BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St. Written for a Russia in the throes of social upheaval, Chekhov’s masterpiece “The Cherry Orchard” reverberates across more than a century in this new staging from visionary director Lev Dodin and his St. Petersburg-based Maly Drama Theatre (“Three Sisters,” 2012 Winter/Spring; “Uncle Vanya,” 2010 Spring Season). $25–$100.

BAM.org A Tribute to Maya Plisetskaya Feb. 25–28 BAM Howard Gilman Opera House Featuring Uliana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, and members of the Mariinsky Ballet. For decades, the legendary Maya Plisetskaya (1925–2015)— muse to choreographers Yuri Grigorovich, Alberto Alonso, and Maurice Béjart—was synonymous with Russian ballet.

A star in the truest sense of the word, she is remembered for the ravenous intensity of her hyperphysical dancing and the spitfire personality that captivated audiences around the

world, onstage and off. From $35. BAM.orgg

MUSIC NEW IN MANHATTAN Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Feb. 26 at 8 p.m.

Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall There are stunning colors, stirring melodies, and an abundance of drama in this concert that features three orchestral favorites. Wagner’s Overture to “The Flying Dutchman” evokes both the storm-tossed sea and tormented soul of the legendary mariner, while Debussy’s “La mer” employs shimmering colors for an impression of the very ocean itself. Ravel’s superbly scored orchestration of Mussorgsky’s piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition” is electrifying from its opening Promenade to the famous “Great Gate of Kiev.” $37–$250.

CarnegieHall.org The Orchestra Now Feb. 28 at 3 p.m.

123 West 43rd St. New York’s new orchestra continues their “Around Town” series of free concerts with a performance at The Town Hall featuring Haydn, David Diamond, and Stravinsky. Free.

TheTownHall.org Labyrinthine Danube: 18th-Century Austria March 5 at 7:30 p.m.

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Central Park West at 68th Street Early Music New York’s Classical orchestra performs symphonies and divertimenti by Austria’s Franz Josef and brother Michael Haydn, father Leopold and son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bohemian Franz Benda and Jan Dismas Zelenka. $20-$40.

EarlyMusicny.org

NEW ELSEWHERE Folk, Form, and Fire: The Prokofiev Piano Concertos Feb. 25–28 BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn Conductor Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Orchestra, and five renowned soloists perform Sergei Prokofiev’s piano concertos in this marriage of virtuosic repertoire and pianistic might—part of year two of the Mariinsky’s residency at BAM. From $35. BAM.org

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February 26–March 3, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts

JAPANESE ARTISTS E X P L O R E C U LT U R A L L E G AC Y, M E M O RY, A N D T R AG E DY DU R I NG A SI A W E E K N E W YOR K 2016 CAROLE DAVENPORT

By Kati Vereshaka | Epoch Times Staff

COURTESY OF JOAN B MIRVISS LTD

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EW YORK—Asia Week New York kicks off March 10, where exhibitors will showcase the rarest and finest examples of painting, sculpture, bronzes, ceramics, jewelry, jade, textiles, prints, and photographs from all over Asia.

For Japanese art aficionados, the 10-day event presents opportunities to view the work of artists who have been named Living National Treasures.

“Asia Week is the most important showcase for us to introduce Japanese artists,” said Onishi Gallery owner Nana Onishi.

Being one of only two galleries owned by Japanese in New York, she said “It’s very important for us to be connected to international collectors and museum curators.

There are 56 Living National Treasures in Japan and we carry 13 of them.”

According to Onishi, collectors are more interested than ever in contemporary Japanese, and Asian art.

The exhibition titled Kogei: Contemporary Japanese Art at Dalva Brothers features many rare talents including three uniquely inspired artists: Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, Osumi Yukie, and Tokuda Yasokichi IV. Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, son of a Living National Treasure in ceramics, was designated the youngest Living National Treasure in Japanese history in 2014 for his work in contemporary Nabeshima porcelain ware.

In Japan, this is a designation for individuals certified as Preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties. They are individuals who have attained a high level of mastery in preserving a cultural aspect, like these art forms.

Last year, Osumi Yukie, was designated the first female Living National Treasure in “kogei” in Japanese history. She is known for her mastery of hand-raised silver vessels decorated with a specialized inlay technique similar to damascene.

Tokuda Yasokichi IV, daughter of the famous Kutani porcelain artist and former Living National Treasure Tokuda Yasokichi III, is a pioneering woman as a female artist to succeed as the head of a traditional pottery family and ceramic dynasty.

In Japan kogei (craft) refers to works made by both artists and artisans. The concept encapsulates a uniquely Japanese idea that the object is a kind of predetermined result of harnessing the nature of materials, such as clay in ceramics and metals in metal works.

Many of the works showcase the seamless way in which Japanese artists are able to integrate traditional technique handed down for generations into works that appeal to modern tastes.

The exhibition titled A Palette for Genius: Japanese Water Jars for the Tea Ceremony at Joan B. Mirviss is the place to see the most wide-ranging works on the theme.

The water jar is linked to the Japanese tea ceremony and, according to gallery registrar Damon Graham, “What is interesting about it is that there are almost unlimited interpretations that an artist can do in regard to creating a water jar, the only restricCOURTESY OF ONISHI GALLERY

Stoney Creek Cremation & Burial Society 3024 QUENTIN ROAD BROOKLYN, NY 11234

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(Top) “Roaring Tiger,” Edo Period, 18th century, by Mori Tetsuzan (1775–1841).

Ink and color on silk.

(Right) “Kinrande floral-patterned covered porcelain water jar,” by Ono Hakuko (1915–1996).

tions are really the scale and that it is to be a lidded vessel.” The exhibition explores an enormous range of water jars—ranging from really traditional works to much more contemporary interpretations.

One approach favors the elemental aesthetic, with rough textural elements resembling rocks, cliffs and earth. The traditional approach takes its cues from the classical Chinese style of tea ceramics brought to Japan during the Southern Song Dynasty.

These water jars are covered in celadon glaze or feature Chinese black and cream designs that are typical of Cizhou ware.

The exhibition that comprises almost 50 works and includes Ono Hakuko’s (1915– 1996) “Kinrande floral-patterned covered porcelain water jar,” from the artist who paved the way for Japanese women ceramists with her mastery of gold leaf on porcelain.

Coinciding with Asia Week 2016 is the photography exhibition In the Wake: Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11 held at the Japan Society Gallery. It opens five years to the day of the triple disaster and features more than 90 works of art by 17 photographers revealing a great range of artistic responses to tragedy.

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PRE-EVENT TICKETS ONLY (Left) “Vase with Zuika (Mullein) flower patterns,” 2013, by Imaizumi Imaemon XIV. Porcelain with iro-e polychrome enamel painting with light sumi and sumi-hajiki.

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