Despite the global pandemic, the China Shanghai International Arts Festival is slated to go ahead, with online contracts penned in late March, Zhang Kun reports in Shanghai.

The Taming of the Shrew, a ballet adapted from William Shakespeare's play by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, will be among the productions of the Shanghai event. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

While many art institutions around the world have canceled their programs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the China Shanghai International Arts Festival on March 24 demonstrated its confidence that the crisis will end by signing online contracts with companies and artists' representatives to introduce their creations to the festival in October and November.

"We and all these institutions are very confident that this crisis will pass, and we hope to work together to combat the global pandemic," Li Ming, deputy president of the center for the CSIAF, says during the online contract signing.

"We hope that the festival can take place as planned this October. We will continue monitoring the development of the pandemic around the world and make contingency plans. In the event that problems do occur, we will be able to present virtual shows with the help of cloud theater technology."

Li adds that while the festival will have the same scale as previous years, the CSIAF will be looking to further improve the quality of the shows as well as push for more premieres of outstanding domestic productions.

According to Yang Jing, head of the center of CSIAF, the online signing conference marked the first time that the CSIAF announced this year's program. The 11 institutions involved in the signing come from Monaco, Germany, Japan, the United States, Britain, France, Portugal, Serbia and Lithuania.

The reason for featuring these institutions from across three continents, says Yang, is to showcase the belief that the CSIAF and participating artists have in the power of art.

"Art will help people across national borders to fight the novel coronavirus," Yang says."We believe art can unite people and console souls in times of suffering and loss."

Six of the 11 productions are formal theater shows on the performance list while four are Art Space projects that will be performed in outdoor or public spaces. There is also a Lithuanian Culture Week consisting of eight productions that will be presented by more than 60 artists, according to Ausrine Zilinskiene, director of the Lithuanian Culture Institute.

One of the six productions will be The Taming of the Shrew, a ballet adapted from William Shakespeare's play by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

Jean-Christophe Maillot, the choreographer director of Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, spoke with Chinese media via the Internet following the online signing.

Performing institutions from around the world have an online contract signing on March 24 for this year's China Shanghai International Arts Festival, scheduled to take place in October. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Maillot, who will be participating in the CSIAF for the seventh time this year, says that this was the first time he has performed an online contract signing for a performance event.

"I think art festivals all over the world should do this," he says. "For me this online signing has symbolic importance. To sign this contract means there is hope and that everything will go on."

Maillot also shared his thoughts about the pandemic and how dancers are in a particularly difficult spot because of the various measures taken to curb the spread of the virus.

"For dancers staying home and not being able to move their bodies, it is like death," he says, before expressing belief that rehearsals for the Shanghai festival can resume when the pandemic is contained by the end of April as predicted.

Maillot created The Taming of the Shrew for the Bolshoi Ballet in Russia in 2014. He was the first foreign choreographer to be invited by the prestigious Bolshoi to create a largescale narrative ballet. According to Monaco Reporter, Maillot's creation is "thrilling and intoxicating, a sensual dance that goes from whimsical to violent, with that touch of eccentricity that characterizes him".

Another one of the six performance shows slated to be shown during the CSIAF is Staatskapelle Dresden's concert series. According to Adrian Jones, director of the renowned German orchestra, the orchestra will present two concerts of Beethoven's composition, playing his violin concertos and Symphony No 5, No 6 and No 7, to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the legendary composer.

Meanwhile, Rodrigo Costa Felix, a Fado singer and music producer from Portugal, will bring the Portuguese Fado Festival to Shanghai for the first time during the CSIAF where it would participate in the Art Space, a regular part of the festival, which consists of free performances in public spaces. During its time in Shanghai, the Fado Festival will present Amolia－Independent Heart, which tells of the life story of a legendary Fado diva. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Fado Festival's founding.

In addition, Yen Han Ballet Productions from Switzerland will present a new production named Creation/Orphee et Eurydiceat Art Space. According to Yen Han, founder of the company, this will be the second time the company is participating in the CSIAF. The company made its debut in Shanghai last year in a joint production with Shanghai Ballet.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn