Shanghai Ballet

We are trying to decide, right now, whether to attend a performance of Shanghai Ballet tomorrow evening.

Shanghai Ballet is five weeks into a grueling seven-week tour of North America, and tomorrow night the troupe will be in Minneapolis.

Two full-length ballets have been brought to North America, but Minneapolis will see only “The Butterfly Lovers” (some cities are getting “La Sylphide”).

“The Butterfly Lovers” sounds like kitsch—but not Monstrous Kitsch, which is what Aix-En-Provence’s Ballet Preljocaj brought to Minneapolis two weeks ago.

There is a difference between kitsch and Monstrous Kitsch. We might be able to tolerate a little of the former; the latter is beyond our power to endure.