Day 10: Yichun is Kinda Lame
There wasn’t much to do in this city. Phil left for the theater right after breakfast. It was raining. I just stayed in and did a bunch of laundry. I have to hand-wash it in the sink, wring it out, then wring it out in a towel because it is so humid here, and it takes forever to dry. Then I took a big nap.
Just one show here, so off to the theater we go. No matter what the city is like we can at least enjoy the theaters. They are all just so beautiful and unique.
This one was very “grand” feeling.
It had pretty grounds to walk around, and pretty good views of the mountains.
See that haze? Smog. Holy moly smog! It’s insane here! IF it’s a sunny day, it’s not really a sunny day because of the smog. The cities where it’s been raining are much better on the lungs. When it clears up I get congested or a sore throat. It’s crazy.
The lobby was stunning, of course.
The show went great. The entire wall behind the stage was an LED wall. I wish I had snapped a picture of that. Maybe Phil did. It was insane. While the music and dancing is happening, there is a slide show of sorts projected behind. Each song has a slide with some type of picture to go with and some explanations in Chinese of these American songs. The set list is a “through the decades” type of flow. It starts with “Happy Feet”, “The Charleston”, works it’s way through Ragtime, Jazz, Westside Story, Elvis, “Pretty Woman” (omg they LOVE Elvis and Pretty Woman”!), disco, and finally Michael Jackson (which they love as well). There are two Chinese songs along the way – “Chrysanthemum” and “Crescent Moon” (which is the encore). I’ll video a song or two one of these days.
It’s a great show. The dancers are really talented (all U of A students), and they have fantastic energy throughout the show. The show is extremely demanding, physically. They are doing a serious cardio workout for 2 plus hours with very rushed costume changes and very little down time. Most of them do a number, change during the next, then do another, etc. It’s very humbling to watch them. I’ve started doing my hour of yoga (I have an app) during their warm ups because I feel extremely lazy watching them work so hard. It’s good motivation for me :) They are a really fun group.
I’ve also been taking pictures during the show for various dancers. There are some nice SLR’s on this trip! I’ll eventually get some and do a post simply dedicated to those. That’s fun for me because I really enjoy photography, and it’s something to do during the show besides just watch and get in the way ;)
After the show was dinner back at the hotel. We weren’t very impressed with the food. It wasn’t horrible or anything, just not the best we’ve had. Then we collapsed into bed because we had to be in the lobby, ready to go, at 5am. Ugh. Another long day of travel ahead.