Dance Theatre - Farewell My Concubine

The King Disarmed is a classic solo piece played by Chinese traditional instrument Pipa. Based on the historical story of Chu-Han combat in ancient China, this music piece tells of the tragic suicide of King Xiang at the back of the Wu River as he was struck by the eventual defeat at the Battle of Gaixia. Farewell, my Concubine is a dance theatre adapted from the King Disarmed. The theatre unfolds an unlinear historical narrative as Yu Jis phantom is accidently awakened by Pipa performer Tang Xiaofengs pipa music. The theatre presents a dialogue between the ancient and the contemporary, man and female, the identity and the ego, time and space. Ma TaoMa Tao is currently the resident choreographer of the Shanghai Opera House. Graduated from the Department of Choreography at Beijing Dance Academy, Ma won many national and regional prizes in choreographing. Among which there were the second prize of the 8th National Dance Competition, and the golden medal in the 2012 East China Professional Dance Competition. His major works include Mulan (with Graeme Murphy and the Sydney Dance Company), Twelve Beauties of Jin Ling, The Champagne, Zhou Xuan and dance works Night Alley, Rain of the Fortress Besieged. Hes also involved in many cross-genre productions. Tang XiaofengTang Xiaofeng, Pipa soloist of Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, one of the best young musicians of traditional folk instrument in China now. Graduating from the Central Conservatory of Music, Tang accomplished his master degree on Pipa performance under the guidance of Pipa master Prof. Zhang Qiang. He is the silver prize winner of the 2011 China Golden Bell Award. Tang is dedicated to infusing up-to-dated elements into the contemporary interpretation of traditional folk music.

Dance 2015

Contemporary Dance - Between N39° and N40°

Between N39° and N49° is a work discussing "distance". Over the years, the choreographer travels back and forth between New York and Beijing, which are located between 39 and 40 degrees north latitude, but across the Pacific Ocean with thousands of miles apart. The physical distance is unchangeable. People come and go, meet and part. The distance of time cannot be changed either. Night and day, darkness and dawn. The river of memory is mixed with the aroma of coffee and sunshine on the streets. Illusions rise from the harshest reality: between 39 and 40 degrees north latitude, what could never be changed is the distance between souls. Lu YahuiLu Yahui is an independent choreographer and dancer. From 2004 to 2012, she worked with Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Beijing Dance Theatre, and Hou Ying Dance Theatre. She also worked with many renowned international artists including Sang Jijia, Zhang Xiaoxiong, Margaret Jenkins, Wang Yuanyuan, Hou Ying, and toured to international arts festivals at more than twenty countries. As a young choreographer, her works include Nineteen Floors Underground, Drowning, Walk Gracefully Once, etc. She relocated to New York in 2013 and has since worked with many choreographers and dance companies, and participated performance projects at Columbia University and New York University. She returned to China in 2015 to create her new work "Face to Face", which was invited to participate the 32nd Annual Shanghai Spring International Music Festival.

Dance 2015

Dance Theatre - Painted Skin

Painted Skin is one of the best stories from Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio. It satirizes the way in which people are adept at "painting skins" for themselves, dressing themselves up with an appealing exterior while hiding a debased soul within. This performance seeks a less-travelled path at the same time while taking the story back to its essence. The wife is cast as the main character as well as the malicious ghost, both played by the same male actor. The malicious ghost is borne out of the turns of the wifes mind: her lack of faith gives rise to the ghost that tormented her husband, and her repentance is also capable of bringing her husband back from the dead. This symbolic deconstruction of the story makes the performance a novel visual experience and creates endless possibilities for imagination. Is the good wife a malicious ghost, or vice versa? This structure, akin to an optical illusion that switches back and forth, conveys the essence of the work and the Eastern concept of beauty. Yang HailongGraduated from College of Dance, Minzu University of China, Yang Hailong is now Executive Art Director of Beijing 9 Dance Theatre. He used to work as a main dancer in Beijing Dance Drama & Opera and Beijing Dance Theatre. Yang has been engaged in choreography in recent years and to Germany, Japan, France and the Netherlands for cultural exchanges and performances. Yangs masterworks include Salome, Ashes Rebirth, The Tea Spell and The Remaking of Humanity. Ashes Rebirth was nominated for the Special Award by the Jury of the Second Denny Award in Beijing for International Excellence in Theatrical Arts and won the Golden Award of the Qunxing Award on the 10th China Art Festival. The dance drama also received the subsidy for the performing arts from Beijing Cultural Bureau.

Dance 2015

Dance Theatre - The Moon Opera

This performance is an adaptation of the most famous novel from the Asian Book Award winner Bi Feiyu. It takes a piercing look into the world of Chinese opera and its female stars. In a fit of diva jealousy, Xiao Yanqiu, star of The Moon Opera, disfigures her understudy with boiling water. Spurned by the troupe, she turns to teaching. Twenty years later, a rich cigarette-factory boss offers to underwrite a restaging of the cursed opera, but only on the condition that Xiao Yanqiu returns to the role of Change. So she does, this time believing she has fully become the immortal moon goddess. Set against the drama, intrigue, jealousy, retribution, and redemption of backstage Peking opera. The Moon Opera is a stunning portrait of women in a world that simultaneously reveres and restricts them. (Supported by 2014 China National Art Fund) Wang YabinDancer, choreographer and actress, Artistic Director of Yabin Dance Company (Yabin Studio), Yabin also has won golden awards in many key national dance competitions, and has been starring in several popular TV series in China. As dancer, choreographer and producer, she creates productions with an international perspective. Works she created in which she was also principle dancer won raves from media and audiences around the world. She was recognized as "one of the most important dancers in Asia" by Knack Focus. "She has a background in Chinese classical dance but has also worked to bring more contemporary dance to China, and headlines an annual programme of creations, Yabin and her Friends...Her performance gives us Chinese and contemporary dance as yin and yang…" by Financial Times. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented her "Yabin Wang presented an incredible dance in a soothing rhythm; her flexible, flowing and energetic movements were fascinating." In 2013 Yabin Studio commissioned Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and production the new piece "Genesis". In 2014, Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of the English National Ballet has invited Yabin Wang to choreograph a dance work for a new production by English National Ballet dedicated to female choreographers entitled "She Said". The performance will be premiered at Sadlers Wells in April, 2016.

Dance 2015