Following the full-speed expansion of technology, enormous changes are affecting all aspects of life as well as contemporary art. So called “Artificial Intelligence” and genetic engineering are a prefiguration of the future that will affect our thinking and bring about an evolution of the human race.

Following this hypothesis, the work by Lian Guodong and Lei Yan (L-square Performance) investigates the changes the human body could undergo; the possible routes humanity could embark on; the new definitions or paradigms art might find.

Three dancers will compose A Poem about the Unknown using their bodies. Engaging a wide time scale, looking at life’s change, extinction, evolution. Casting a look full of imagination and curiosity, a gaze that will turn and look back at ourselves as humans. A poem written to, and about, the unknown. A message that will perhaps come back to us. An action happening in the present, in the past, and in the future.

L-square Performance is the new collective founded by choreographers-performers Lian Guodong and Lei Yan. Based in Beijing, their artistic research is centred on the body as a site of resistance, experimentation and reflection on societal issues.
Lian Guodong graduated in Chinese literature from Peking University. After graduation, he started his professional training in dance. In 2002 he danced in Beijing Modern Dance Company; in 2004 joined Jin Xing Dance Company and then in 2005 joined LDTX company as a choreographer. In 2010 he was part of “Beyond China” in Amsterdam organized by Emio Greco/PC and in 2012 received an American Dance Festival scholarship. He performed in Theater Kampnagel Hamburg, Münchner Kammerspiele, Hamburger Theatertag and others.
Lei Yan graduated from Beijing Dance Academy in 2006, where she later taught modern dance. In 2009-2011 she joined Beijing Modern Dance Company, performing across China and Israel. In 2011-2014 she joined TAO dance company performing at Sydney Opera House, Vienna Festival, Taiwan’s New Wind Festival, Sadler’s Wells in London and other  international venues.
Both Guodong and Yan performed in several works by Paper Tiger company.

director: Lian Guodong
choreographer: Lei Yan
performers: Fan Lu, Qian Tingting, Xu Yiming
light design: Wang Jingjing
sound design: Letizia Renzini
visual design: Qiu Yu
costumes: Zhang Sisi
video/photos: Fan Cong
dramaturg: Kai Tuchmann Kai Tuchmann
producer: Fabrizio Massini
assistant producer: Xu Li
commissioned YAP – Young Artist Platform for Dance (China)
co-producers: Fabbrica Europa, Goethe-Institut China / International Coproduction Fund, Theater im Pumpenhaus Münster (Germany), Shanghai International Dance Center (China)
supported by Beijing 9 Contemporary Dance Theatre
special thanks: Fei Yu Dance Studio, Yabin Studio, Xuelian Fang Studio, Beijing Chiao Kon Kee Culture Communication

Photogallery

Calendar

October 30, 2020 | The Name of Rose Center – 798 Art District, Beijing (China)
November 13-14, 2020 | Shanghai International Dance Center Theater, Shanghai (China)

cover photo: Feng Yuehong
first gallery photos: Wu Shi
second gallery photos: Feng Yuehong