June: Dancing to Chen Yi for the Ethnic Dance Festival

When Chen Yi comes into our lives - there's usually adventure. In 2008 we commissioned and premiered her long work "From the Path of Beauty" for vocal ensemble and string quartet with The Shanghai Quartet. That led to our first trip to China in May of 2009. This year her "Spring Dreams" has been an all-time favorite with our audiences from here to Lithuania and back (and we'll perform it in Shenzen, China next week.) So when the Ethnic Dance Festival invited us to perform on their Gala Benefit this Friday night, it was natural that "Spring Dreams" be the song to offer up for choreography. We rehearsed today with the China Dance School featuring Crystal Lee, and were turned into dancers (a little) by choreographer Cai Wen. Of course the dancers did most of the dancing, but we did have to make some unaccustomed moves.