Cast of the Ballet des Porcelaines at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy/Villa Albertine headquarters at the Payne Whitney Mansion in NY City. Photo by Joe Carrotta
Cast of the Ballet des Porcelaines at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy/Villa Albertine headquarters at the Payne Whitney Mansion in NY City. Photo by Joe Carrotta.
Waddesdon Manor
In 1739 at a château outside of Paris, a group of French elites staged a ballet pantomime known as the Ballet des Porcelaines or The Teapot Prince. Written by the comte de Caylus, with music by Grandval, it tells the story of a prince searching for his lover on an exotic island ruled by a Chinese sorcerer, who turns trespassers into porcelain. On the one hand an Orientalist fairy tale, the ballet is also an allegory for the European desire to know and possess the secrets of porcelain manufacture. Final Bow for Yellowface co-founder Phil Chan and NYU professor Meredith Martin have reimagined this lost baroque work with an Asian-American creative team, aiming to make it relevant and meaningful for a contemporary, multiracial audience. After premiering the ballet in the galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in December 2021, they will bring it to numerous sites in the U.S. and Europe, including Waddesdon Manor and the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.
To find out more about the Humanities Cultural Programme funded Project Fund project please visit: The Teapot Prince
