Curated Showcase China

Curated by: Sabrina Chen Li, Theatre Programme Director - Shanghai International Dance Center Theater

Shanghai International Dance Center Theater has selected four contemporary dance works with different styles which had been created by independent choreographers from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. These works had been showcased in the 1st China Contemporary Dance Biennale in 2019 which unveiled the latest developments of contemporary dance in the mainland of China and was highly praised by international curators.

The Three Bowls Co-op

Web Traffic

Choreography: Fan Jiang

Web Traffic is a multimedia dance theatre piece about our excessive presence and desires in the virtual social environment. The piece approaches China’s booming live streaming industry and its idiosyncratic and gender-coded performance apparatus from the perspective of a female streamer. Web Traffic presents how an aspiring streamer is animated and consumed simultaneously in the reward-based live-streaming space.

Funders, Supporters, Co-Producers: Shanghai International Dance Center Theater

Guodong Lian/Yan Lei

I didn’t say anything

Choreography: Guodong Lian, Yan Lei

The exploration of this solo piece immerses in finding a path from concrete reality to the imagery of the body. This work experiments with the many possibilities of body language with the help of objects. Boxing gloves as shoes, broken glass bottles as props – the performance, without any spoken word, is intense and powerful. The solo performance aims at discovering and unleashing a physical force beyond the limits of overly precise movements.

Tian Tian

YONG

Choreography: Tian Tian

The past is a foreign land. In the trilogy Yong (“miniatures”), Tian is guiding the audience through an exercise of imagination, or rather: an exploration of the past as an ‘exotic place’. The pieces are inspired by the miniatures from the Han and Tang dynasty. Analyzing relics that depict scenes of dance with the curiosity of an archeologist and imagining movement through time, Tian combines an archaeological reconstruction of traditional Chinese dance with the will to re-imagine it for today’s audience.

Binjing Fu

Sky-high

Choreography: Binjing Fu

This is a self-statement about the "I". The piece reflects the experiences of growing up against the background of a professional dance education and at the same time poses the question: What is dance? If dance originates from life, what is the influence of dance and how is it itself influenced? In light of advancing technologisation, have we forgotten what the freedom that dancing brings us feels like?