Enfilade

The Ballet des Porcelaines arrives in the UK this month with performances at Waddesdon Manor (16–17 June) and Brighton’s Royal Pavilion (19–21 June). In conjunction with the project, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) presents a day of panel discussions:

Porcelain, Chinoiserie, and Dance: The Teapot Prince
Worcester College, Oxford, Friday, 17 June 2022

Waddesdon Manor

Three panels of creative artists and academics discuss the porcelain ballet, The Teapot Prince, as part of its world tour. Panel members include choreographer, Phil Chan, founder of Final Bow for Yellow Face; Meredith Martin, art historian and co-creator with Phil Chan, of The Teapot Prince; artist, Hannah Lim; poet and academic, Sarah Howe; ceramicist, Matt Smith; writer and ceramicist, Edmund de Waal; and art historian, Katie Scott. All are welcome! Registration is available here»

The Teapot Prince is based on an Orientalist fairy tale about a sorcerer who lives on a ‘Blue Island’ and transforms anyone who dares to trespass into porcelain cups, vases, and other wares. When the sorcerer turns the eponymous prince into a teapot, his lover, the princess comes to his rescue…The original Ballet des Porcelaines can be seen as an allegory for the aggressive European desire to know and steal the secrets of Chinese porcelain manufacture. In the new version, the narrative is flipped. The main protagonists are now Chinese, the Sorcerer a mad European porcelain collector, modelled on Augustus II the Strong (1670–1733), King of Poland, elector of Saxony and founder of Meissen, the first European manufactory to succeed in making true porcelain.

Music Room at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton,
Photo by Jim Holden