Modern Dance - Escaping From the Mountain

Published on Sep 21, 2016

Modern Dance - Escaping From the Mountain

Rating:

Genre: Dance & Ballet

Dates: Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Venue: Tianqiao Theatre

Prices: 50, 100, 180, 280, 380, 480, 580, 880


Features: The Escaping From the Mountain is featured as special performance on Chinese modern dance and it will be performed at Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing on October 26th during the Zhao Liang’s Soul & Desire Trilogy Show Season.


BRIEF INTRODUCTION

This is the first show season in the modern dance history of China that is presented by an individual artist, who boldly attempts to integrate eastern aesthetics with western narratives.


For the first time in 20 years, audiences have the opportunity to fully enjoy the entire series of the Soul & Desire Trilogy in one row, thanks to the well-known modern artist Mr. Zhao Liang.


Escaping From the Temple was derived from two famous Chinese Kunqu Operas: Longing For the Mundane and Going Down the Mountain. As far as difficulty level is concerned, Longing For the Mundane is well known as the demanding one to perform for female artists. In his book My Country and My People, famous author Mr. Lin Yutang once marveled at the monolog script of the young nun in Longing For the Mundane that, “this is undoubtedly a top notch literature in China.”


Zhao Liang inventively presents the Kunqu Opera singing and dance performances simultaneously on the stage, featuring both the natural beauty of the former and the avant-garde dynamics of the latter. Such approach to incorporate “drama within drama” is very challenging. The role of the young nun is played out by two people, among whom Ms. Dong Fei has been trained under the lineage of the great Peking Opera master Mr. Mei Lanfang. She will play the role of Empty and sing Kunqu alive on the stage.


Escaping From the Mountain

The story of Escaping From the Temple is quite well known in China: on a beautiful spring day, a young nun met a young monk and they fell in love with each other. Eventually both of them left their temples and went down the mountain together. The ending is the climax of the story. However, is it an illusion of the young nun or a projection of the audiences for a “happy ending”? The amazing part of Escaping From the Temple lies in its open ending. The audiences may uncover one layer of the story after another...


From the point of view of visual effects, Escaping From the Temple may be the least fancy show among all three in Trilogy: everything is presented as it is. However discussions and debates triggered by the show and its “as-is” style have never stopped. To be or not to be -- in the mountain or down from the mountain, in the temple or in the mundane -- and how to transit smoothly in between... Audiences of this show may find themselves pondering these questions.


This art work was also featured as special performance on the Shanghai International Art Festival in 2015. In summer 2016, this show was on a tour in Germany, which won enormous positive feedbacks and pressed a ‘reset’ button to German audiences’ impression on Chinese modern dance.


Escaping From the Mountain

Zhao Liang’s Soul & Desire Trilogy Show Season:
Composed of three chapters, the Soul & Desire Trilogy illustrates Zhao Liang’s return to the traditional Chinese culture and his fluency in eastern dance vocabulary after he spent time overseas. The three chapters are independent yet interrelated. Together they form an experiment in terms of theme, structure, dance components and visual effects, which demands extraordinary artistic talent and courage. All these may as well make Zhao Liang an avant-garde in the modern dance history of China. In fact, these art works have also won round applauses overseas. They transcend the boundary between modern and classic, connect the East with the West and shine forth with something universal -- the human nature.


The Trilogy focuses on and cares for all sentient beings -- ultimately men and women in the mundane world are bound by three things: greed, ignorance and aggression. While desires and thoughts come and go, the soul struggles in between them. Sometimes it is clear, while others dull. People are torn between the polarities: form vs. emptiness, soul vs. desire, life vs. death, disillusionment vs. nirvana...


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