ballet
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Headlines explored visual and performing arts as a form of public diplomacy.
However, Ballet Austin is now going where few, if any, Western ballet companies have gone before. The major cities of Beijing and Shanghai are typical tour destinations for the few American dance companies that have performed in China. Yet Ballet Austin’s tour includes farther-flung cities like Kunming, Chengdu and Chongqing, where few Western performing artists ever tour.
President Xi Jinping proposed the cultural exchange year in 2014 when he attended the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in Brasilia.
Ballet Philippines had the recent honor of being invited to the 40th-anniversary celebration of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and China. The invitation was given by the Department of Foreign Affairs International Economic Relations-Cultural Diplomacy Unit with the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
The Royal Moscow Ballet is presented in South Africa by the Edouard Miasnikov Agency, whose objective is to widen cultural exchange and sharing between Russia and South Africa.
Some of the most renowned professional dancers from around the world will perform and compete with one another from now until Saturday. [...] But VIBE is about more than just dancing. Film makers, diplomats and policy makers from around the world will discuss the role of arts and culture in international diplomacy.
An official from Manila’s Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the performances of the Philippines’ premier ballet company, Ballet Philippines (BP), in the UAE and three other countries in the Middle East, were only a prelude to a series of cultural productions from the Southeast Asian nation to the region.
Touring Swan Lake in China is not the kind of cultural diplomacy that will help Australia gain a foothold in Asia.[...] The arts sector must engage with Asia and other parts of the world on cultural terms.