TOT

Groundbreakers & Wuxi Performing Arts Group (China) - One day Chinese Dance Festival

The program is an initiative of the Dutch dance company Groundbreakers. The “One day Chinese Dance Festival” consists of
- Crowman
How would it be to live in two worlds? As human being and as a crow. Once Yu puts on his black coat, crow wings appear and he stretches out, to fly over rooftops and hills towards the horizon. Crowman is a contemporary dance performance bringing one of the major stories of the seventeenth century writer Pu Songling to life. Spectacular live animations and dancers from China and the Netherlands, take you into a hallucinatory world, ruled by immortals, birds and gods and telling a story about freedom, greed and selfishness within love. It is a unique collaboration between Dutch and Chinese dance makers, about universal values, beyond the boundaries of Western and Chinese culture.
- The Embroidery Girl
This original Chinese dance drama tells the story of a girl ‘Xiu Niang’ from southern Jiangsu. She is very capable in the famous Jiangnan embroidery arts. She is the concubine of Hua Jue, but falls in love with her embroidery master Ming Xuan. The story shows how the modern Chinese girl at the time, fights against the feudal ethics and for the pursuit of the liberation of women. She still lives on as a legend among generations of women, also in modern China.

Wuxi Performing Arts Group (formerly "Jiangsu Folk Dance Theatre") was founded in 1958 and is a large, reputable and well known company for its high quality dance technique throughout China. Classical- and Chinese ballet (Gudian Wu), known from the Chinese opera, are the dance language used on stage. Wuxi Performing Arts Group have won many awards and prizes with their shows and travelled over twenty countries around the world.
- Lecture
Lulu Wang will talk about the classical supernatural horror stories of the 18th century Chinese poet Pu Songling. She will tell us about the Confucian morals and Taoìst principals that form the basis of Songling´s stories and that even in today´s China are the guidance for many people.
The classic story The Embroidery Girl still symbolizes the subservient position of the woman in modern China.The theme of the festival is the connection between the classical and contemporary cultures in China.

Photos