also scheduled on
May 11, 2019 21:00

within
FOCUS CHINA
Body, ideology, contemporary

This is a solo piece co-created by Lian Guodong and Lei Yan. The exploration they wanted to make was finding a path from concrete reality to the imagery of body, by objects and actions. Meanwhile, they tried to discover a kind of power beyond physical movement’s design and the language of theatrical text, to discover other possibilities of body expression.
This expression is an introspection on the essence of performance, about the inefficiency, misplacement and restructuring of body itself. And also about the silence we have to keep, which is hiding in plain sight.

Lian Guodong is an independent choreographer from Beijing. After graduating in literature from Capita Normal University, he trained in contemporary dance at the Beijing Modern Dance Company. In 2004 he joined the Jinx Dance Theater in Shanghai and in 2005 he joined Beijing Dance / LDTX. Choreographer and dancer since 2006, he has collaborated with numerous companies such as Living Dance Studio, Paper Tiger and Wang Jianwei. He was invited by Emio Greco / PC to Amsterdam in 2010 with the dance project “Beyond China”, and received a scholarship from the America Dance Festival in 2012. His works have been invited to many festivals in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Kunming and Hong Kong.

Lei Yan is a Beijing-based dancer and choreographer from Hubei. She graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy in 2006, where she taught modern dance in the following years. Between 2009 and 2011 she was part of the Beijing Modern Dance Company with which she performed in China and Israel (Europalia). Between 2011 and 2014 she joined the Tao company with which she danced, among others, at the Lincoln Arts Center Festival, the Sydney Opera House Spring Festival, the Vienna Festival, the New Wind Festival of Taiwan, Sadler’s Wells Theater. As a choreographer she was invited to the CCD Independent Choreographer Project, Beijing Cross Festival, Shanghai Fringe Festival, Guandong Modern Dance Festival and I-Dance Festival Hong Kong. She often collaborates with the Paper Tiger company.

From 18:00 at PARC spaces it is possible to visit an installation with videos on contemporary Chinese choreography and performing arts (free admission).

FOCUS CHINA
Body, ideology, contemporary

Usually, when one hears of Chinese performing arts, the mind goes to the same set of images: the iconic movements of Peking opera, the physical bravura of acrobats and contortionists, the colossal group choreographies. Postcards from an exotic China, far away in time and space, difficult to reconcile with our (European) idea of “contemporary”. Suggestive snapshots that tickle the imagination while inferring a substantial, irreconcilable difference between “them” and “us”.
Beyond this two-dimensional portrait that the media constantly reproduce, there are not one, but several Chinas. Chinese contemporary dance well reflects this multiplicity: a mutable reality where tradition and experimentation coexist, and interact in complex ways. “Body, Ideology, Contemporary” aims to explore such complexity and offer a broad overview of Chinese performing arts to the Italian and European audience.
Five emerging choreographers present their work through performances and workshops. At the centre of their research, the body and the ideological forces that influence, shape and define it. From Lian Guodong/Lei Yan’s body as a place of resistance, to Wu Hui’s and Yu Yanan’s body as a receptacle of memory; from Er Gao’s provocative queer body, to Tian Tian‘s archaeological reconstruction of the body. In addition to the performance section, the program offers many opportunities for an in-depth understanding, including lectures by academic personalities, meetings with the artists, and public events joined by Italian dance artists too. Visuality will also play a central role, with video materials presenting seminal personalities and works from Chinese contemporary dance artists.

Fabrizio Massini – Curator