Red, the latest work by the Beijing-based “Living Dance Studio”, is a documentary performance that finds its inspiration and point of departure in the revolutionary model theatrical works. Turning the artistic and critical attention to the imagery of the heroic, gun-wielding ballerinas balancing on their toes, the Living Dance Studio uses a variety of documentary materials - publications and visual materials about the original revolutionary model ballet, footage of recently conducted interviews, biographical and personal stories of the revolutionary ballet dancers, etc. - to engage with the performers’ bodies on stage.  

The striking difference of stereotypical art language of the four dancers tell us in our face that Red goes beyond the body memories that traverse four generations. What had once been there is still here today. The genes of complexity is everywhere in the reality. Beiqingbao

The Red Cultural Revolution encounters the now. On one hand, it discusses the duplication and consumption of the then political-cultual symbols. On the other hand, it explores the true meaning of women's emancipation buried in the grand narrative of class emancipation. Pengpai News

 

i-Dance (HK) 2016 Artist-in-focus: WEN Hui

  Choreographer, dancer, documentary film-producer, installation artist and a pioneer of China’s contemporary dance theatre, WEN Hui graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy in 1989. Yet, institutional training didn’t inspire WEN much. Describing herself as a “malformed dancer”, WEN found her hands tied under regimented training and group gymnastic-based performance. WEN travelled to the New York by chance in 1994 and learned modern dance there. She received a 1997-1998 Asian Cultural Council scholarship to further study modern dance and theatre in New York. She spent the whole year reading in the Lincoln Center Library and learning from the then masters. WEN Hui was a dancer of Ralph Lemon’s between 1999 and 2000. She performed in Tree in BAM 2000 Next Wave Festival and other cities. The experience of living abroad left strong impressions on WEN of how the body is trained in the east and the west. Western dance training focuses on rational analysis while eastern training is driven by emotions. New York as a city of freedom make WEN understand the true meaning of realizing one’s dreams. When she returned to China in 1994, together with Wu Wenguang, she set up “The Living Dance Studio” to materialize her dance dreams. WEN believes in theatre as social-intervention. For 22 years, she curated and organized a number of art projects and created 20 independent theatre productions. WEN has been exploring the relation between the body, society and history since 2008. She believes that all experience leaves marks in the body. The memories and color buried deep inside the body can never be washed away. In recent years, “documentary theatre” is a much-used form in The Living Dance Studio. WEN researches, conducts interviews, organizes and reflects on social and historical issues, then turns them into dance works. Red is a work of the “community memories project”, a project which place emphasis on the memories of the citizens who explores his own position in history. WEN produces her own documentary movie Listening to Third Grandmother's Story as part of the project. WEN was described as “A dance pathfinder….a miracle” by the press in France in 2009.

• In 2015 wenhui’s work: “Dancing with Third Grandmother” “Dancing with Farmer workers"at the Venice Biennale in Italy.
• In 2005, Wen Hui and Wu Wenguang established Caochangdi Workstation and co-curated the first “Cross-arts” International Dance Festival in Beijing. In the same year, they initiated European Artists Exchange Project and Young Choreographers Project.
• In 2004, Report on Body by Living Dance Studio won the “ZKB Patronage Prize” in Zürcher Theater Spektakel.

Compiled by: YU Wing-tung  

Creation and Production Team

  Choreographer: WEN Hui Text: ZHUANG Jiayun Dramaturgy: Kai TUCHMANN (Germany) Performers: JIANG Fan、LI Xinmin、LIU Zhuying、WEN Hui Lighting Designer: Edwin van STEENBERGEN (the Netherlands) Video: ZOU Xueping Stage Designer: ZHOU Jie Interviewers: WEN Hui, ZHUANG Jiayun, ZOU Xueping Music: WEN Lvyuan Translation: GUO Rui, XU Qian, ZHUANG Jiayun   A co-production of the Beijing Living-Dance Studio and the Goethe-Institut China   Ticket Price: HK$260, HK$200 With Meet-the-Artist session after performance [vc_row][vc_column][vc_btn title="Buy Ticket Now!" style="flat" color="turquoise" align="center" i_icon_fontawesome="fa fa-ticket" link="url:https%3A%2F%2Fticket.urbtix.hk%2Finternet%2Fen_US%2FeventDetail%2F30499||target:%20_blank|" add_icon="true"][/vc_column][/vc_row]   [vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_style="outline" message_box_color="green" icon_fontawesome="fa fa-hand-o-down" css_animation="appear"]

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