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Thread: Martial Arts in Live Theater

  1. #106
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    The Chinese Warriors of Peking

    ‘The Chinese Warriors of Peking’ bring martial arts drama to Rialto
    By Tacoma Weekly Staff - September 6, 2018



    The Chinese Warriors of Peking are bringing their acrobatic and visually spectacular show to the stage of Tacoma’s Rialto Theater on Thursday, Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m. Hailing from China, the ensemble will perform thrilling physical feats fused with traditional Chinese customs to deliver high-intensity martial arts and breathtaking acrobatics. Set during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), this is the tale of two rival martial arts disciplines competing in the ancient Chinese capital of Peking. Under the direction of Qui Jian, this performance provides a culturally enriching experience filled with juggling, acrobatics, and live stage combat.

    The troupe will act out a narrative from the history of China: Peking was the capital of the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644. Once year, the emperor held a royal martial arts tournament in Peking, inviting warriors from all over the country to attend. In Tianqiao Square, large crowds were drawn to witness the warriors demonstrating their impressive skill. Every school and discipline of Martial Arts arrived in Peking from all over China. Before the tournament began, the crowd in Tianqiao Square was kept entertained by the Peking Opera girls performing with yo-yos and acrobats giving performances in juggling and contortion. Then, the drums and trumpets sounded as the emperor arrived. “Long live his Majesty!” the crowd chanted as the emperor announced the beginning of the tournament.

    All of the different martial arts schools competed in the ring utilizing their various disciplines, techniques, and weapons to thwart their opponents. After several rounds of combat, the two schools left standing were the Shoalin and Wudang warriors. The final round was grueling and tense. The warriors were evenly matched but ultimately the Wudang warriors were struck down and defeated. The emperor rose, stopping the tournament and announced the Shaolin warriors as the winners. The Wudang warriors confronted the Shoalin warriors uproariously in the middle of the ring, dissatisfied with the outcome of the tournament. To settle the tension, the emperor promised that in next year’s tournament, he will offer the Shaolin and Wudang warriors an opportunity to compete exclusively with each other. The Shaolin warriors left Peking hailing their victory while the Wudang warriors vowed to seek revenge and defeat the Shaolin warriors next year.

    A year passes as the next royal martial arts tournament finally arrives. It is held at the front square of the royal palace. The emperor arrived very early escorted by a group of female guards. They rode on horses, decorated in magnificent armor with spears in hand. They are followed by an acrobatic families’ presentation of Pagoda of Bowls and Icarian acts keeping the crowd, and the emperor, entertained before the tournament begins.

    The emperor announced the beginning of the tournament and the special campaign between the Shaolin and Wudang warriors. Wudang warriors fought hard to seek their revenge as the two schools battled with breathtaking intensity. Ultimately, the contest ended in a draw. Frustrated by the outcome, the Wudang suggested a challenge of their own to determine the winner: one of their warriors must balance atop of four spears to be crowned the victor. The Shaolin warrior passed – the Wudang warriors can’t believe in their eyes. With the sound of drums, the frustrated Wudang prepared to attack the Shoalin once more. Unexpectedly, the emperor jumped into the ring, restraining the Wudang warriors by hitting their acupoints and rendering them motionless. To diffuse the tension once more, the emperor announced that he required both schools to be his royal warriors of Peking and defenders of the peace to the dynasty. The Martial Arts tournament ended as the two schools are appointment to defend the city of Peking together.

    Tickets are $29, $39 and $49. For information, visit http://www.broadwaycenter.org/events...iors-of-peking or www.facebook.com/events/1856608841025984.
    THREADS:
    Martial Arts in Live Theater
    Interesting Shaolin Monk show
    Gene Ching
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  2. #107
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    A Ghost in my Suitcase

    Sounds cute and fun.

    Kung-fu witchery conjures stage magic for the whole family
    By Cameron Woodhead
    19 October 2018 — 3:19pm

    MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL


    Alice Keohavong as Celeste and Amanda Ma as Por Por.CREDITANIEL JAMES GRANT

    THEATRE
    A GHOST IN MY SUITCASE ★★★★½
    Adapted by Vanessa Bates from the book by Gabrielle Wang
    Barking Gecko Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne, until October 21

    A Ghost In My Suitcase is superb family theatre – a stylish, big-hearted and vibrant adaptation of a much-loved children's book, delivered with all the vision and polish you'd expect from a major international arts festival.

    This is the tale of Celeste (Alice Keohavong), a 12-year-old girl who describes herself as "half-Chinese, half-French, all Australian". Her mother has died, and she's charged with returning the ashes to China to be laid to rest in her homeland.

    A journey of grief becomes one of discovery as she connects with her mother's heritage – but it's also a cracking adventure story.


    Children's theatre at its best.CREDITANIEL JAMES GRANT

    You see, Celeste's grandmother Por Por (Amanda Ma) turns out to be a ghost-hunter. She's a complete shoo-in if there's ever an Asian Ghostbusters. Using martial arts and white magic to trap restless spirits, she's a force to be reckoned with, and her skills are in high demand.

    The ghost-hunting gift can be inherited by the women in Celeste's family, so what was supposed to be a solemn journey to a place of final rest soon turns into a running battle against the unquiet dead.

    Celeste's introduction to the world of the supernatural won't be easy. Por Por already has an apprentice, the bold and spiky Ting Ting (Yilin Kong), who takes an instant dislike to the new kid on the block.

    But they'll have to learn to work together: Por Por's past holds a tragic secret, and her ancestral home, Bao Mansion, has attracted a ghost of terrifying power that they'll need every inch of their might to destroy.

    Charming performances, especially from Ma as the kick-arse grandma, are matched by lovingly realised design that allows the adventure to sweep and billow across time and place.


    Ma, left, is a particular delight.CREDIT:STEFAN GOSATTI

    The thrillingly inventive spookiness of the stage magic is accompanied by a gleeful sense of purpose from the actors, who embrace with delight all the elaborately choreographed kung-fu witchery required to ward off spirits.

    Perhaps the one reservation was the use of cartoons, which didn't seem to fit the production stylistically. But everything else about it clicks to perfection, combining to create poignant, memorable and entertaining theatre that neatly balances action and emotion.

    Children will be delighted, and adults will be taken with it too.
    Gene Ching
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  3. #108
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    Chinese Warriors of Peking

    Masters of martial arts
    Chinese Warriors of Peking celebrate time-honored traditions
    Posted November 2, 2018


    The dynamic troupe demonstrates stage combat, juggling, acrobatics and traditional weapons handling in the fast-paced show.

    On Stage
    Chinese Warriors of Peking

    The acclaimed acrobats and martial artists have gained worldwide recognition touring with Cirque du Soleil. They’ve since gone out on their own; entertaining audiences with a fast-paced production is filled with breathtaking martial arts and elaborate acrobatics. “Slack Wire,” “Pagoda of Bowls” and “Bicycle” are just some of their most famous and successful acts, winning numerous awards over the years. Their current touring production, set during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), relates a tale of two rival martial arts disciplines competing in the ancient Chinese capital of Peking. The fascinating ensemble incorporates juggling, acrobatics, weapons handling, and live stage combat into this high-intensity performance to tell the historical story. The breathtaking and gravity-defying choreography combines artistry and athleticism into an enthralling performance that fascinates all ages.

    Saturday, Nov. 3, 3 p.m. $66, $46, $36. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, LIU Post, Route 25A, Brookville. (800) 745-3000 or www.ticketmaster.com or www.tillescenter.org.
    Performers combine martial arts, acrobatics
    Nov 2, 2018 Updated Nov 2, 2018


    Michelle Raymond/Gazette

    The Chinese Warriors of Peking put on a show with high-intensity martial arts and acrobatics Thursday at the Kovalchick Convention and Athletic Complex.

    Set during the Ming dynasty, the performance re-enacts the royal martial arts tournament where the country’s finest warriors demonstrated their skills to entertain crowds.
    It's been forever since I've seen a show like this personally. I kinda miss them.
    Gene Ching
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  4. #109
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    Vietgone


    Vietgone serves up family, immigration and the Vietnam War with a dash of rap and kung fu fighting


    Royal MTC Warehouse season opener offers an unexpected but appealing mix of drama, romance, comedy
    Joff Schmidt · CBC News · Posted: Nov 02, 2018 4:00 PM CT | Last Updated: November 2


    Simu Liu plays Quang in the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre's stylish production of Vietgone. (Dylan Hewlett/Royal MTC)

    In most Western writing about Vietnam, the fall of Saigon in 1975 is an ending to the story. In Vietnamese-American playwright Qui Nguyen's Vietgone, it's a starting point.

    The 2015 play, opening the season at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre's Warehouse, is "not a story about war — it's a story about falling in love," says Peter Fernandes, who takes on the role of Qui Nguyen in a funny, metatheatrical opening that tells us that the real Nguyen, as playwright, plans to mess around a bit with theatrical convention.

    And Vietgone does, with an unexpected but stylish and appealing approach to the story that blends comedy, drama and romance with a bit of rap and a little kung fu fighting.

    Yes, it's odd — but for the most part, it works.


    Vietgone tells the story of playwright Qui Nguyen's real parents, Tong and Quang (Simu Liu of Kim's Convenience fame, front), as they try to make a new life in America after the Vietnam War. (Dylan Hewlett/Royal MTC)

    The story here follows Nguyen's real parents — Quang (Simu Liu, of Kim's Convenience fame), a South Vietnamese pilot, and Tong (Stephanie Sy, seen earlier this season as one of the leads in PTE's Prairie Nurse).

    Post-war, both have ended up in a refugee camp in Arkansas — a situation they react to in wildly different ways.

    Tong, who tamps down sentimentality with a tough exterior and biting wit, maintains she has no draw to her home country and is determined to make America her new home.

    Quang, meanwhile, is just as determined to find a way to get from middle America back to his family in Vietnam. That's also the goal of Tong's mother, the sharp-tongued Huong (Jennifer Villaverde, in a deliciously nasty performance), whose homesickness manifests in a disdain for the food, the language and the people of America.

    Jeff Yung rounds out the cast with a likably goofy turn as Quang's sidekick, Nhan, while Fernandes delights in a series of small supporting parts (his "Hippie Dude" may be worth the price of admission on his own).


    From left to right: Jennifer Villaverde, Stephanie Sy, Peter Fernandes and Jeff Yung. Nguyen laces his script with lots of witty humour and a mish-mash of genre and pop culture references, including monologues delivered in the form of rap songs. (Dylan Hewlett/Royal MTC)

    Stories of immigration and culture clash aren't new, but Nguyen makes it clear (with great comic style) from the outset that he intends to dispense with stereotype.

    No broken English, bad accents or "earnest, humourless Asian" tropes here. Instead, he has his characters speaking more like contemporary young adults — underscoring the fact that in 1975, that's exactly what his parents, though strangers in a strange land, were.

    That also means Nguyen — telling the story of immigrants through the filter of a gen-X first-generation American — laces his script with lots of witty humour and a mish-mash of genre and pop-culture references. That includes monologues delivered in the form of rap songs (not quite Hamilton-level dope, but delivered with panache, and resulting in what is likely the highest number of "motherf--kers" ever dropped on an MTC stage).


    Director Robert Ross Parker's stylish production makes smart use of Hugh Conacher's video projections to take us through various locales and time periods as the play tells the story of Tong (Stephanie Sy) and Quang (Simu Liu). (Dylan Hewlett/Royal MTC)

    There's also a bit of slapstick (a courtship montage between Quang and Tong, interrupted by her protective mother, becomes a nice bit of physical comedy thanks to clever use of the sliding panels that make up Joanna Yu's versatile set).

    As well, smart use of Hugh Conacher's video projections takes us through the various locales and time periods the story covers, and yes, there's some kung fu fighting — a pretty great, Bruce Lee-flick-style scrap (wonderfully choreographed by Jacqueline Loewen).

    It all mixes together more effectively than you'd think it might in director Robert Ross Parker's inventive and energetic 135-minute (with intermission) production, though the script's winking, tongue-in-cheek tone sometimes undercuts the play's sincerity in the first act.


    Not everybody is kung fu fighting in Vietgone, but Peter Fernandes and Simu Liu engage in a Bruce Lee-flick-style scrap, wonderfully choreographed by Jacqueline Loewen. (Dylan Hewlett/Royal MTC)

    As the relationship between Quang and Tong — presented by Liu and Sy as believably complicated but still sympathetic characters — grows and shifts, we're drawn into a story that has surprising layers of complexity.

    The point Nguyen makes is that the stories we think we know often aren't quite what we thought — whether the story of the Vietnam War, or of "the immigrant experience" in America, or of our parents.

    Throw in some good beats and a bit of kung fu fighting, and Vietgone makes for a thoughtful, lively and fresh piece of theatre.

    Vietgone runs at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre's Tom Hendry Warehouse until Nov. 17.
    Should be Vovinam not Kung Fu, but only we know that.
    Gene Ching
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  5. #110
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    Kung Fu Spring Festival Gala

    'Startles' isn't the right word for this article's title - a sure indicator of a Chinese-to-English translation. This company needs to work on their PR.

    Chinese Kungfu Startles French “Kung Fu Spring Festival Gala”, Ctrip Helps Promote Henan Kung Fu Brand to the World

    On January 27th, a Kung Fu Spring Festival Gala named "Dance, Poetry and Martial Arts" came on stage in Paris to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations, promoting the cultural exchange and profound friendship between China and France. At the party, Tai Chi and Shaolin Kung Fu, two representative programs of Chinese Kungfu, showed the beauty of different forms of martial arts and condensed the thousand-year tradition and history of Chinese Kungfu.With consummate skill and superb performance, these two programs offered a stunning visual and cultural feast of Chinse Kungfu to the world.



    Shaolin Kung Fu and Taijiquan are excellent representatives of Chinese Kung Fu and high-quality cultural resources of Henan Province. As a symbol of Chinese Kung Fu, Shaolin Kung Fu was formed in the specific Buddhist cultural environment of Shaolin Temple in Songshan, and fully reflects the traditional Buddhist cultural system of Zen wisdom. The outstanding representative of Chinese Kung Fu, Tai Chi, also originated from the land of ancient civilization in Henan. In the middle of the 17th century, Chen Wangting from Chenjiagou, Wen County, Jiaozuo City, inherited boxing from his family, absorbed the strengths of other boxing forms, integrated the concepts of Zhouyi academy and Chinese medicine, and created the world-famous Tai Chi.



    As a sacred place for Chinese and foreign Kung Fu devotees and readers of martial arts novels, Henan Province, has also established a Kung Fu brand in recent years to promote the Henan Kung Fu brand around the world. From Kung Fu culture tour, Kung Fu culture experience to Kung Fu technique teaching, Kung Fu has become a new business card for Henan tourism. In 2018, Culture and Tourism Department of Henan Province also cooperated with the Office of Chinese Language Council International to set up a serious of courses about Chinese Kung Fu in Confucius Institute, such as Tai Chi, aiming to help Henan become a world-class Kung Fu holy land and cultural tourism destination.



    Across the five continents in today’s world, nearly 100 countries have established martial arts associations and two branches of Chinese Kungfu (Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi) also attract numerous fans all over the world. Take Europe as an example, more and more Europeans are fascinated by Chinese Kung Fu and we can find thousands of Chinese Kung Fu fans in France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries. Forefathers-Shaolin Temple and Taiji Holy Land-Chenjiagou have become two must-see places for Europeans to visit China and experience Kung Fu culture.

    To better promote the gold medal of "Chinese Kung Fu" to the world, Culture and Tourism Department of Henan Province signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ctrip Group in 2018 to promote the Henan Kung Fu brand to the world with Ctrip's leading strength in the overseas market. Ctrip has 350 million members worldwide and has strong capability in integrating abundant marketing resources.

    Ctrip will also cooperate with Henan Province to build and promote the IP of “Henan Kung Fu Cultural Trip" and help Henan grab the world’s attention with its irresistible charm of Kungfu. In the promotion, “Kung Fu Life, Hometown Henan”, a global marketing plan for Henan Tourism, will be implemented with multi-channel promotion and innovative marketing campaign worldwide.



    Till now, Ctrip Government Resource Cooperation Department has partnered with more than 300 destinations and has accumulated rich experiences in promoting destinations to different targeted markets at home and abroad. In the future, Ctrip will further cooperate with Henan Province on Kung Fu brand promotion, products designing and other promotion forms to comprehensively enhance the popularity and reputation of “Kung Fu Tour in Henan” and promote Henan Kung Fu brand to the world.

    Media Contact
    Company Name: Ctrip.com International Ltd
    Contact Person: Alice
    Email: Send Email
    Country: China
    Website: www.ctrip.com
    Maybe it sounds better in French.

    THREADS:
    Year of the Pig 2019
    Martial Arts in Live Theater
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  6. #111
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    Martial Arts in Live Theater

    I could've sworn I posted about this earlier but I can't find that post now.

    Play dedicated to iconic martial arts' master is a knockout
    Yang Meiping
    11:50 UTC+8, 2019-02-03


    Ti Gong
    A scene in the play shows Cai Longyun was lifted up after he defeated Russian fighter named Marceau Love.

    A play dedicated to the memory of legendary martial arts master Cai Longyun recently premiered at the Magnolia Theater in Shanghai.

    The play "Cai Longyun," produced by Shanghai University of Sport, where Cai worked as a professor, took 18 months of research, script writing and rehearsals.

    Cai shot to fame when he was only 14 years old by defeating an internationally renowned Russian fighter named Marceau Love – a man 11 years his senior.

    His victory against the 25-year-old provided a boost to China, who at the time was often referred to by foreigners as the “sick man of Asia.”

    Born to the son of a famous martial artist, Cai Guiqin, in 1928 in Shandong Province, Cai started practicing martial arts at the age of 4. By the age of 9, he was already proficient in several martial arts’ styles, including luo han quan (arhat boxing).

    His name “long” means dragon in Chinese, and Cai was later called “shen quan da long,” or big dragon with magic fists.


    Ti Gong
    A scene in the play shows Cai Longyun taught students at Shanghai University of Sport.

    After the People’s Republic of China was founded, Cai was selected to fight for the national martial arts’ team. He eventually went on to become its leader in his later years.

    He joined Shanghai University of Sport in 1960 to teach and research the martial arts’ discipline. Cai was also vice chairman of the Chinese Martial Arts Association, became a chief judge in many national and international martial arts’ competitions and published many articles and books on the sport. And when China implemented its first martial arts’ belt system, he was one of only three individuals nationwide to achieve the ninth, and highest, degree.

    Yet when praised by others he was always humble and said, “I am not a master, I am a teacher.”

    Cai believed the martial arts are not only a way to keep fit but also an important discipline to foster national spirit. He said the process of martial arts’ training is a course of "internal and external cultivation."

    Lu Jun, screenwriter of the play, revealed he had spent more than a year doing research, interviewing Cai’s relatives, friends and students, and revised the script more than 10 times.

    Yu Zhong, a teacher of Shanghai Theater Academy, played the character of Cai as a middle-aged and old man. He was a student of Cai in the 1980s when studying at Shanghai University of Sport.

    “Mr Cai was a very gentle and elegant person and I admire him for that,” said Yu. “I have learned many things from him. After I played his character, I got a better understanding of his elegance and humility.”

    The play was only performed twice to an invited audience only but the university revealed they plan to stage it for more people in the future.

    Cai died in 2015 at the age 87.


    Ti Gong
    Cai Longyun


    Ti Gong
    A file photo shows the moment when Cai defeated Russian fighter named Marceau Love.

    Source: SHINE Editor: Su Yanxian
    That third pic reminds me of our NOV+DEC 2005 cover


    THREADS
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  7. #112
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    Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise

    The Shed Premieres DRAGON SPRING PHOENIX RISE
    by Sarah Hookey May. 28, 2019



    Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise, a kung fu musical conceived and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng and commissioned for The Shed's 2019 opening season, will have its world premiere engagement June 22 - July 27 in The McCourt (preview performances June 22 - 26). Co-conceived by Kung Fu Panda screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise features movement choreography by Akram Khan; an original score by composer, musician, and producer The Haxan Cloak including arrangements of songs by Sia with additional remixes by composer, musician, and producer Arca; an original production design concept by Tim Yip; and martial arts choreography by Zhang Jun.

    "Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is a modern fable of transformation-two teenagers finding the courage and strength to overcome the forces of greed and power," said Alex Poots, artistic director and CEO of The Shed. "These are themes that run deep in Sia's songs, brought magically to life by Chen Shi-Zheng, our creative team, and an incredible cast."

    "There likely isn't a fight sequence in movies, television, or theater that is not based on the traditional martial arts. Now is the time to reimagine the art form for a new era," said Chen. "Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise transforms iconic Chinese images, movement, and philosophy into a contemporary American setting. It is a saga that combines spirituality, animism, and human emotion to explore generational shifts of culture and ideas."

    Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise blends an immigrant story of survival and transformation with a mystical exploration of the dualities between life and death, fire and water, old and new. Chen Shi-Zheng integrates a vocabulary of martial-arts movement with music and storytelling to create a groundbreaking new style of immersive theater performance.

    The story begins at the House of Dragon, a secret sect in Flushing, Queens, whose kung fu warriors protect the Dragon Spring, an elixir of immortality. Lotus, the daughter of Grandmaster Lone Peak, rebels against her strict upbringing and falls in love with Doug Pince, a charming billionaire. Lotus is too blinded by love to realize Doug's true intentions. After she gives birth to twins, Lone Peak issues a prophecy: Doug will be stopped by a legendary force. Separated at birth, Lotus' twins must eventually come together to face their day of reckoning, when the fabled Dragon Phoenix will rise.

    The Shed's commission is the first stage production for screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, whose films include the Kung Fu Pandatrilogy. It is also the first experience with scoring for live performance for The Haxan Cloak, who composed new music and remixed four songs written by singer-songwriter Sia-"Bird Set Free," "Out There," "Courage," and "Lullaby"-into an entirely original soundtrack. Two additional Sia songs, "The Greatest" and "Chandelier," remixed by Venezuelan artist and producer Arca, contribute to the powerful instrumental and vocal score.

    Preview performances of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise run June 22 - 26. The commission opens on Thursday, June 27, and continues through July 27, with performances at 8 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays and matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 pm, and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets to Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise are available at theshed.org and (646) 455-3494.

    Located on Manhattan's west side, where the High Line meets Hudson Yards, The Shed commissions original works of art, across all disciplines, for all audiences. From hip hop to classical music, painting and sculpture to literature, film to theater and dance, The Shed brings together leading and emerging artists and thinkers from all disciplines under one roof.
    I know a master named Zhang Jun but I don't think this is him.
    Gene Ching
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  8. #113
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    Hmmm, will this need its own indie thread?

    I usually split indies around the 3rd post.

    Inside the International Rehearsal Process for New Kung Fu Musical Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise
    BY NATHAN SKETHWAY
    MAY 30, 2019

    The new musical from the writers of Kung Fu Panda will begin performances June 22 for its world premiere at The Shed.


    Elijah Laurant, Jacob Thoman, Coral Dolphin, Yuriko Hiroura, Abdiel Jacobsen, Marla Phelan, and Xavier Townsend Stephanie Berger

    The new kung fu musical Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise will make its world premiere at The Shed as a commission for the groundbreaking new venue's inaugural season, with performances set to begin June 22 ahead of a June 27 opening. The musical, co-conceived by Kung Fu Panda screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, features a score with original tunes by composer, musician, and producer The Haxan Cloak, as well as new arrangements of songs by pop star Sia.

    “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is a modern fable of transformation—two teenagers finding the courage and strength to overcome the forces of greed and power,” said Alex Poots, artistic director and CEO of The Shed. “These are themes that run deep in Sia's songs, brought magically to life by Chen Shi-Zheng, our creative team, and an incredible cast.”

    Check out the gallery below for a look at Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise's rehearsals, which spanned over New York City and Beijing. Visit TheShed.org for tickets and more information.''

    Totally copy-able to our Sword Hotties thread.
    Gene Ching
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  9. #114
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    This made Xinhua

    No pix tho. I'll split it next time.


    Groundbreaking kung fu musical to debut in New York

    Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-09 01:38:14|Editor: yan
    NEW YORK, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A groundbreaking kung fu musical named "Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise" will make its world premiere in two weeks at The Shed, a newly-opened center for artistic invention in New York City.

    The musical, conceived and directed by Chen Shi-Zheng, tells the story of a secret sect, in the Flushing area of the city's borough of Queens, which possesses the magical power to extend human life, and the twin brother and sister caught in the struggle to control it.

    Alex Poots, artistic director and CEO of The Shed, said the musical is a modern fable of transformation as two teenagers look for courage and strength to overcome the forces of greed and power.

    Chen said the musical transforms iconic Chinese images, movement and philosophy into a contemporary American setting.

    "It is a saga that combines spirituality, animism, and human emotion to explore generational shifts of culture and ideas," he said.

    The production has drawn talented people from around the world. Co-conceived by Kung Fu Panda's Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, the musical features songs by Sia remixed by Bobby Krlic, who is known by his stage name The Haxan Cloak, and Venezuelan artist and producer Arca. It is choreographed by the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Akram Khan.

    Fast-paced martial arts combat and balletic dance sequences unfold in front of, around and above the audience in this original production designed specifically for the soaring, flexible space of The McCourt.

    The McCourt, The Shed's most iconic space, is formed when the movable outer shell is deployed over the adjoining plaza to create a 17,000-square-foot hall with the good control of light, sound and temperature for large-scale performances, installations and events. It can accommodate a seated audience of approximately 1,200 and a standing audience of more than 2,000.

    The musical is commissioned for The Shed's 2019 opening season. It will run from June 22 to July 27.
    Gene Ching
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  10. #115
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    NYT coverage


    Can a Kung Fu Musical Get (Way) Off the Ground?

    “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise,” the unlikely offspring of a Chinese-American opera impresario and the writers of “Kung Fu Panda” — with songs by Sia — aims to show just how high the Shed can fly.
    By Reggie UgwuPhotographs by Devin YalkinVideos by Mohamed Sadek
    June 19, 2019

    Half a dozen warriors gathered at the base of a striated plateau, cracking jokes and letting off steam before the moment of truth. “You ready?” said Abdiel Jacobsen, tall and muscular, turning to Xavier Townsend, whose slight frame bloomed into a mop of dreadlocks.

    “I’m ready,” Xavier said, knowing his time had come.

    He raised both fists high above his shoulders and stepped toward the spotlight, where he was surrounded by a throng of technicians in black shirts and headsets. One was holding a rope that shot straight up to the ceiling, a vertical distance of more than 10 stories.

    The plateau wasn’t God’s handiwork, but that of the Shed — the $500 million arts complex at Hudson Yards on Midtown Manhattan’s far west side. It was part of the custom-built, multilevel stage for a new multimillion-dollar “kung fu musical” called “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise,” which begins previews on June 22.

    Cast members were given a crash curriculum (martial arts training, aerial choreography and singing lessons) to transform them into futuristic warriors.


    Cast members were given a crash curriculum (martial arts training, aerial choreography and singing lessons) to transform them into futuristic warriors.Credit Devin Yalkin for The New York Times

    The show, the unlikely fruit of an even less likely collaboration — involving Chen Shi-Zheng, the Chinese-American opera impresario; the “Kung Fu Panda” screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger; the musician Sia; and the choreographer Akram Khan — pushed the star-studded creative team to its limits, taking three years to make and crisscrossing as many continents.

    And cast members, consisting almost entirely of contemporary dancers who were given a crash curriculum (martial arts training, aerial choreography and singing lessons) to transform them into futuristic warriors, faced an even steeper challenge.

    “Remember: If you want to come down, just say ‘Down,’” an aerial coordinator with a loose bun of gray hair said to Xavier. It was June 12, a little more than a week before audiences would be watching, and for the first time the dancer-turned-warrior was strapped into a nylon harness that would raise him 80 feet into the air. The technician with the rope fastened him in.

    “You better pray!” Abdiel howled from the base of the stage, drawing laughs from the crowd that had gathered there. “X is about to go to the mother planet!”

    MAY 10 | 43 DAYS BEFORE PREVIEWS BEGIN

    The Ghost of Bruce Lee
    A month before Abdiel and Xavier arrived, Alex Poots, the CEO and artistic director of the Shed, was sitting in the same spot, clicking at his laptop. Another custom stage, this one built for Björk, occupied the space where the plateau is now, at the center of this highly flexible 1,200-seat theater, the McCourt.

    Before joining the Shed, Mr. Poots, one of the contemporary art world’s most exuberant and prolific matchmakers, served as the artistic director of the Park Avenue Armory and the founder of the Manchester International Festival in England. In those roles, he commissioned an opera that paired the artist Marina Abramovic with Willem Dafoe, and a ballet, adapted from a Jonathan Safran Foer book, that featured a score by the electronic music producer Jamie xx and choreography by Wayne McGregor.

    “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise” is his most ambitious undertaking yet. It was developed as a kind of proof of concept for the new building, engineered to dazzle audiences with name-brand artists, staggering physical scale and blockbuster pyrotechnics not found anywhere else in a city well steeped in audacious spectacle.

    But achieving liftoff won’t be easy. The last such high-profile, high-flying attempt was the Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” a notoriously unwieldy enterprise that left a cautionary legacy of comic one-liners, broken hearts and sunk capital when it closed in 2014.

    PeiJu Chien-Pott as Lotus.CreditDevin Yalkin for The New York Times


    “I’m hoping the physicality and the energy will carry us through,” said Mr. Chen.Credit Devin Yalkin for The New York Times


    Ms. Chien-Pott is a principal dancer of the Martha Graham Company.Credit Devin Yalkin for The New York Times

    Getting to the rehearsal stage for “Dragon Spring,” which The New York Times observed on six occasions over four weeks, took years of meticulous planning, and a high tolerance for risk.

    On his laptop in the McCourt, Mr. Poots found the video that started it all, and pressed play. It was a black-and-white clip of a young Bruce Lee in 1964, wearing a trim black suit and tie to audition for the television series “The Green Hornet.” In the audition, Lee demonstrates an array of kung fu moves with astonishing velocity and force, introducing each with the workaday nonchalance of a flight attendant giving safety instructions.

    The video had arrived in Mr. Poots’s inbox in 2015, with a note from Mr. Chen expressing his desire to bring Lee’s physical dynamism to the stage.

    “It was an entry point into something that was artistic, that had real rigor, but was at a juncture of art, sport and spirituality, which I thought was such a potent proposition,” said Mr. Poots, who had previously worked with Mr. Chen on the acrobatic opera “Monkey: Journey to the West,” a collaboration with the band Gorillaz.

    Mr. Poots, who had been dreaming up ideas for what was then to be called the Culture Shed, asked Mr. Chen how he could help develop the show. The director said that his wife had been a big admirer of the “Kung Fu Panda” movies. Mr. Poots opened his Rolodex.


    Warriors trying to resurrect Lotus.Credit Devin Yalkin for The New York Times
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    Continued from previous post


    MAY 23 | 30 DAYS BEFORE PREVIEWS BEGIN

    Making Artists into Martial Artists
    The ensemble members, each carrying a seven-foot bamboo staff to practice the show’s climactic fight scene, stood single file in a rehearsal space on 42nd Street. Cued by the score, a thunderous refrain composed by Bobby Krlic, who records as the Haxan Cloak, they snaked across the floor in a skewed figure eight before coming to rest in a semicircle that spanned the room.

    The musical, which takes place in Chinatown in Flushing, Queens, in the near future, tells the story of an exiled sect of kung fu warriors that guards an underground spring infused with the power of eternal life. The fugitive daughter of the sect’s grand master, who eloped with a mysterious outsider, gives birth to twins who are separated at birth, only to reunite 18 years later to save the sect, and the world, from a powerful enemy.

    Mr. Chen, 56, with boyish black hair and a gentle manner, looked on during the rehearsal from a chair on the sidelines, his chin buried deep in his palm.

    The ensemble pounded the floor in unison with their staffs, creating a resounding pulse. The grand master, played by David Patrick Kelly (“Twin Peaks” on TV, “Once” on Broadway), entered the center of the semicircle with PeiJu Chien-Pott, a principal in the Martha Graham Dance Company who portrays his daughter, and two of the show’s villains. Then the fighting began — a brutal ballet complete with swords and a bullwhip.

    After a few run-throughs of the scene, Mr. Chen halted the action and approached Ms. Chien-Pott. Her kicks hadn’t been landing as they should.

    “It doesn’t read,” he said, showing the actress how to properly position herself. “You’re hitting his shoulder, but you want to hit his face.”

    Mr. Chen was born in Changsha, China, and trained as a youth in baguazhang, an early form of kung fu that intoxicated him. “I’ve always found martial arts to be one of the most beautiful kinds of movements — the precision and the energy and the line of the body,” he said. “I’m always shocked that it’s not used more on the stage.”

    He came to New York in 1987 to pursue an M.F.A. in experimental drama at New York University. In 1999, he earned international acclaim for his three-day, 20-hour production of “The Peony Pavilion” at the Lincoln Center Festival, and went on to direct other idiosyncratic work, including “Monkey” (which had mixed reviews but toured the world) and a Chinese adaptation of “High School Musical.”

    Though wrapped in pop packaging, the core themes of “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise” — geographical and spiritual dislocation, hybridized identity and the weight of heritage — are deeply personal.

    “I wanted to create a modern myth about immigrants in America and how they survive,” Mr. Chen said. “When I came to this country in the late ’80s, it was cool to be different. But lately I’ve been feeling so much hostility, and that kind of subconsciously went into the plot.”

    He spent more than a year on casting, searching for performers who could match the show’s multidisciplinary ambitions. But the musical theater actors he saw didn’t make believable fighters, and the martial artists couldn’t pull off the requisite acting and dancing.

    He decided to narrow his focus to the dance world — largely hip-hop, modern, and classical — figuring he would get an actor’s stage presence and a martial artist’s core strength and agility in the bargain.

    But mastering the fight choreography, even for a cast with extraordinary physical discipline, took longer than expected. That meant less time to practice other aspects of their performances. And more to worry about.

    “We were trying to find people who could do the martial arts and the acting and the singing, but we failed, in a way,” Mr. Chen acknowledged. “I’m hoping the physicality and the energy will carry us through.”

    Learning to fly in the harnesses was the last — and riskiest — piece of the puzzle.


    Learning to fly in the harnesses was the last — and riskiest — piece of the puzzle.CreditDevin Yalkin for The New York Times

    JUNE 12 | 10 DAYS BEFORE PREVIEWS BEGIN

    Taking Flight
    On the plateau in the Shed’s McCourt Theater, just over a week before “Dragon Spring” was scheduled to open, a technician gave Xavier final instructions.

    “X marks the spot — stand right … here.”

    It was the first, and only, week of full rehearsals for the show’s three aerial sequences, which, for logistical reasons, hadn’t been possible outside of the Shed. For Xavier and the rest of the ensemble, learning to fly in the harnesses was the last — and riskiest — piece of the puzzle.

    Directly above him was a ring-shaped platform suspended 80 feet in the air, from which he and six other performers were to dive in a dramatic rescue scene. Below him were live fire pits capable of shooting flames, and water spouts that could flood and drain the plateau on demand.

    Mr. Poots estimated that the stage had cost around $650,000 to construct, money that, along with the rest of a budget that he said was in the low millions, had been offset by fund-raising, and which he hoped to recoup with ticket sales and rentals to other theaters and presenting organizations. (Unlike “Spider-Man,” the show is being presented by a nonprofit.)

    “We thought very carefully about designing the show so that it could have a life after the Shed,” he said, adding that producers from London, Paris, Beijing and Berlin were among those expected to attend its four-week run.

    On the plateau, the technician, who wore a controller around his neck the size of a 12-pack, flipped a switch and hoisted Xavier aloft: 15 feet, 30 feet, 50 feet.

    “Whaat!” Xavier shouted, weightless and grinning with delight, as the rope pulled him high above the stage, above his castmates, above everything.

    Whether the show would ultimately live up to its lofty ambitions remained to be seen. But, for this moment at least, none of that mattered — he could fly.

    “Yeah, Xavier!” shouted the coordinator from below, craning her neck and smiling. “You look beautiful!”

    Reggie Ugwu is a pop culture reporter covering a range of subjects, including film, television, music and internet culture. Before joining The Times in 2017, he was a reporter for BuzzFeed News and Billboard magazine. @uugwuu
    Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise needs its own thread now, independent of Martial Arts in Live Theater
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  12. #117
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    The Talmud

    There’s a lot you can learn about the Talmud from kung fu movies, according to a new play
    BY JOSEFIN DOLSTEN SEPTEMBER 4, 2019 4:09 PM


    Jesse Freedman's "The Talmud" draws inspiration from the Jewish canon and Chinese martial art films. (Courtesy of Freedman)

    NEW YORK (JTA) — In trying to understand the often esoteric arguments of the Talmud, people often turn to teachers, dictionaries and a range of other study aids. Jesse Freedman has found another helpful, albeit unexpected source: kung fu movies.

    Five or six years ago, the Jewish director and playwright was watching the martial arts film “Canton Viper” when he realized that it reminded him of something in the Talmud, which he spent some time studying in college.

    “Then I learned more Talmud and watched more kung fu movies and then I thought, ‘The Talmud reminds me of kung fu movies and kung fu movies remind me of the Talmud,’” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tuesday.

    Among the many similarities Freedman found between the two are the relationships between students and teachers, who often debate and feud over the small intricacies of their respective traditions.

    The structure of the works are similar, too: In kung fu movies, narrative scenes are interspersed with choreographed fight scenes that propel and comment on the plot. In the weighty compendium of Jewish law and lore, legal discussions are interspersed with anecdotes and parables that may illustrate a principle.

    “The relationship between narrative and choreographic material in kung fu movies provides an interesting opportunity to interpret the Talmud for the stage,” Freedman said.

    So Freedman, 37, decided to do what he does best: write a play about it. The result is “The Talmud,” which will run Sept. 12-28 at the Target Margin Theater in Brooklyn. The 75-minute play was created by Meta-Phys Ed., a performance company that Freedman founded with Rabbi Bronwen Mullin and for which he is the artistic director.

    “That is basically just how I make work,” said Freedman, a Brooklynite who grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. “There are a couple things I’m interested in and I kind of just smash them together.”


    Freedman’s play finds similarities between kung fu and Talmud study in the relationships between students and teachers. (Courtesy of Freedman)

    The play’s plot comes from the Talmud tractate Gittin, which primarily deals with laws related to divorce. Freedman focuses on a digression in the text concerning land confiscated by Romans from Jews during the First Jewish-Roman War, which ultimately led to the destruction of the Second Temple.

    In a reimagined Talmudic academy, rabbis talk about the law — in dialogue taken from the English translation of the text — with choreographed sequences inspired by kung fu. It features a four-person cast and a musician playing the pipa, a traditional Chinese lute. There are also video projections and dance, ranging from postmodern to hip hop.

    Though there are no actual fighting sequences in the play, Freedman drew inspiration from the way duels and fighting sequences are structured. As he and the cast worked on the play, they watched a number of Chinese kung fu movies from the 1970s to the present.

    In the Talmud, “people challenge each other in order to sharpen their skills or in order to defend their techniques or their traditions or the understanding of the tradition, or in order to keep the tradition alive and to expand it and move it forward.” Freedman said.

    To better understand those dynamics, he added, “I can watch kung fu movies because that is often what kung fu movies are about.”

    It’s not the first time Freedman has combined unlikely topics in a play. His 2018 performance work “Wake … Sing …” drew inspiration from a Depression-era drama by the Jewish-American writer Clifford Odets, biblical books about the resurrection of the dead and zombie movies.

    “Most of my projects tend to have some kind of a Jewish thread,” he said.

    The director said he has enjoyed the education about the richness of two unique cultures.

    “It’s been great to learn about thousands of years of Jewish and Chinese tradition together,” he said.
    Intriguing. I really don't know enough about Talmud study to get the connection, but cool, right?
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    STAGE (Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration)

    Scientific process inspires UChicago art/science lab, whose latest play entangles quantum concepts and kung fu


    STAGE Lab members (from left) Collin Van Son, Sunanda Prabhu-Gaunkar, Ellen Wiese, Madeleine Kerr and Edison Hong take a class with kung fu Master Oscar Lam (right) as part of a workshop in Hong Kong.

    Photo by Willy Tang

    By Louise Lerner
    Dec 12, 2019

    Scholars and students use technology to create new stories for the theater

    Scientists stage experiments all the time—but only a few stage plays. But at the University of Chicago, an innovative art/science lab embedded in its Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering has found inspiration in a unique place: the scientific process.

    “We use research, brainstorming and improvisation to generate and investigate new ideas, with continuous analysis and feedback,” said Prof. Nancy Kawalek, the director, actor and writer who heads STAGE (Scientists, Technologists and Artists Generating Exploration).

    But these are not science lectures disguised as plays, she said: “By creating emotionally engaging stories, we get the public interested in and excited about science.”

    STAGE is based at the PME, the first school in the nation dedicated to defining molecular engineering—an emerging field that builds on advances in basic science to design technology from the molecular level up. In turn, Kawalek works with scholars, students, scientists and artists from across the University, as well as externally, to also use technology as an integral part of staging stories about science.

    The STAGE lab group is comprised of scientists and artists who collaboratively develop new theater work through a unique process of improvisation and iteration. Each theater project centers on a scientific concept, which is integrated over months of rehearsals into a story that has an emotional parallel to the scientific topic. For example, the lab’s latest project melds quantum entanglement and kung fu.


    A STAGE Lab brainstorming session on the use of technology to tell a story.
    Photo courtesy STAGE Lab

    The project was inspired when Kawalek became aware of a museum exhibit that used motion capture and other technology to map a young kung fu master’s moves onto a lifelike avatar of his long-deceased great-grandfather, the revered Master Lam Sai Wing.

    “In this way, the singular style of kung fu originated by Lam Sai Wing, and in some sense the master himself, were brought back to life on film,” Kawalek said. “Though still in the very early stages, Entanglement is evolving into a play about science, technology, memory and heritage. Quantum entanglement takes us into the remarkable future of technology, while the intangible cultural heritage of kung fu offers inextricable links to the past.”

    Kawalek was fascinated by the museum exhibit, especially after learning that the words “kung fu” carry, among other things, the connotation of energy and time. Additional links emerged through discussions with Tian Zhong, a PME assistant professor and STAGE collaborator, who has been doing research on a quantum phenomenon called time-energy entanglement.

    Zhong said the exhibit is a powerful demonstration of the type of connections STAGE wants to draw. “The avatar represents a collapsing of time, spanning two generations through movement. This is exactly the essence of time-energy entanglement, so we thought this was a perfect way to inform an audience about the concepts of quantum physics,” he said.

    This past summer, the STAGE group worked with The Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex | The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong, traveling to Hong Kong to research kung fu and quantum science. Students and faculty met with Master Oscar Lam, Lam Sai Wing’s great-grandson; Hing Chao, a leading advocate for the preservation of Chinese martial arts; and the museum exhibit’s artist, Prof. Jeffrey Shaw, a distinguished media artist at the City University of Hong Kong.

    Throughout the Hong Kong workshop, research, kung fu lessons, and brainstorming and motion capture sessions provided compelling material for developing Entanglement, Kawalek said. For example, Zhong and the STAGE group had a fruitful discussion with Chao about the role of energy in martial arts. When Zhong raised questions about scientific concepts like conservation, Chao offered an impromptu demonstration of forces specific to different martial arts, such as the linear punches of boxing, versus the arcing shapes of many methods of attack in other types of Chinese martial arts.


    A scene from the workshop production of a previous STAGE play, "The Art of Questionable Provenance."
    Photo by HMS Media

    As the play develops, Zhong said, he hopes it will increase public awareness and knowledge about quantum science, especially among younger generations. “Some of the concepts in quantum physics are very counterintuitive, and it’s a struggle to relate them to our everyday experiences,” he said. “But I believe earlier and greater exposure to ‘bizarre’ concepts such as these will generate many more innovative ideas down the road.”

    STAGE continues to investigate the ideas discovered during their Hong Kong research trip, and Kawalek said the lab hopes to present a workshop production in 2020.

    As with all STAGE lab projects, Kawalek said, the goal of Entanglement is to excite the public about science and technology through theater that is relevant to our lives, which are influenced by technological and scientific advances at every turn.

    “These connections between science and art—at some level, they’re about the same thing,” Zhong said. “Both start with asking intriguing questions. Then you use existing knowledge to inquire and explore, and the outcome is creation—new knowledge or new art. It’s just the toolsets that are different.”
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    The Healer

    RAWdance’s multisensory ‘The Healer’ is remade for the pandemic era
    Rachel Howard January 26, 2021Updated: January 26, 2021, 7:38 pm


    RAWdance co-director Katerina Wong (center).
    Photo: Elena Zhukova
    When RAWdance Co-Artistic Director Katerina Wong’s dance “The Healer” was first set to premiere almost one year ago, it was to be an immersive sensory experience. Choreographed to honor Wong’s aunt, a registered nurse who also practiced traditional Chinese medicine, “The Healer” was designed to have the audience walk into ODC Theater alongside the dancers, welcoming all with incense blown by paper fans, and inviting viewers to take deep qigong breaths in their shared space.

    But a week before opening night, COVID-19 shut down San Francisco. Six months later, when RAWdance regrouped to see what the company might present online in 2021, “The Healer” — which had been one of three world premieres scheduled on that scuttled 2020 program — stood out as the dance to resurrect in this new moment.

    Now “The Healer” is set to premiere via live stream on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 29-30, with very different logistics but with the same — though newly intensified — intent.

    Patrons who ordered the Sensory Offerings package for “The Healer” will not just sit down in front of their screens, but will first open up teabags and ginger candies and paper fans sent ahead of time in the mail. Women chosen as mentors by Wong will start the online evening by showing their own rituals like removing their shoes and lighting candles. The performance will begin with breathing exercises, even if the participants cannot share the same air, and the 30-minute prerecorded dance will be followed by a live Q&A session with a healing practitioner, with different healing modalities featured at each showing.

    “It’s about finding a way to live in this moment and stay in these difficult emotions,” Wong said, speaking from her home in the Mission just after the insurrectionist mob attacked the nation’s Capitol, as she prepared for a day of rehearsing her dancers over Zoom. “It’s about letting these emotions flow through each of us so we can learn their lessons.”


    Katerina Wong (left) and Stacey Yuen in “The Healer.”
    Photo: Hillary Goidell
    She hastens to explain that “The Healer” has been developed “from a beginner mind-set.” Wong, whose father emigrated from south China to Montreal and then Brooklyn, was raised Jewish by her mother and did not learn about traditional Chinese medicine much as a child. Her beloved aunt Szuson Wong was so busy traveling the world to lecture about Chinese healing practices that Katerina rarely got to see her until her aunt’s last years, when her aunt was diagnosed with a rapidly spreading cancer. Szuson Wong elected to forgo many Western treatments and chose a holistic treatment center in Reno, where her niece visited frequently and saw how her “stern and specific” aunt navigated the tensions between approaches to health, making sure her herbal remedies were compatible with prescriptions.

    It was only after her aunt died two years ago that Wong began seriously researching the principles of traditional Chinese medicine, discovering, she says, “these concepts exist in all of us whether we’re aware of it or not.”

    The work she’s created for four female dancers physically explores these concepts. For instance, Wong and her dancers worked with Chinese medicine’s system of pressure points and meridians to shift their partnering from habitual Western modes of contact at the waist and the hands, instead mindfully registering sensations at the wrists and ankles, or behind the knees or neck.

    The project presented a welcome field of new exploration for the prolific Bay Area composer Daniel Berkman, who has practiced tai chi since high school. His commissioned score draws on the six healing breath sounds of qigong to ask, he said, “How can we make breath into a percussive score?”

    An incorrigible experimenter with world instruments who often plays on a 21-stringed West African cousin of the lute called the kora, Berkman also delighted in discovering a Chinese version of a Japanese mouth organ called the sho to use in “The Healer.”

    “It makes a bigger and grander sound that’s intense,” he said.

    He also reveled in the challenge of incorporating audio from a 2012 lecture Szuson Wong gave at a conference titled “Wisdom From the Origins.” “The sound quality of the recording was iffy,” he said, “but the way she got everyone in the room so engaged was inspiring.” So rather than disguise the sound quality, he worked with it raw as part of the breath texture of the piece.


    Stacey Yuen (left), Juliann Witt, Katerina Wong and Michaela Cruze at a pre-COVID work-in-progress showing for “The Healer.”
    Photo: Hillary Goidell
    The audience may have to experience all this in their individual homes, but after nine months apart and a careful quarantine, the four dancers came together to rehearse and film at ODC Theater. RAWdance member Stacey Yuen, who began creating the very earliest version of “The Healer” with Wong in such different circumstances almost two years ago, was relishing the physical contact.

    Wong “creates such a space of openness and dialogue and community,” Yuen said. “Delving back in has been a healing process after all this time and turmoil.”

    “The Healer”: RAWdance. Available to stream 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29; 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30. $15-$100. www.odc.dance/TheHealer

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    Convergence -- a journey of Chinese dance and martial arts

    Feature: When Chinese martial arts, Western contemporary dance converge
    Source: XinhuaEditor: huaxia2022-08-24 20:00:15

    SYDNEY, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- With lights fading out at the Neilson Studio of Sydney Dance Company, 18-year-old Australian contemporary dancer Xanthe, together with dozens of her peers, quietly walked on the center stage, ready to showcase the fruits of their Chinese martial arts training.

    After spending five weeks absorbing Hung Kuen and White Crane elements from their Hong Kong teachers, the young performers, wearing navy blue tank tops and leggings, wowed the audience with fresh choreography melding Chinese martial arts and Western contemporary dance on Tuesday night.

    For most of them, participating in the cultural exchange event associated with Hong Kong Dance Company's online dance production "Convergence -- a journey of Chinese dance and martial arts" was their first step to learning about China and its unique culture from afar.

    "I was like, honestly, shocked. That is so different from what we do," Xanthe told Xinhua after the performance, recalling the very moment when she embarked on her learning of martial arts.

    "We had five Zoom lessons with Hong Kong Dance Company, while the first two were definitely very challenging," she said. Having been practicing contemporary dance for about 12 years, Xanthe described the Chinese martial arts as "a new language to our bodies".

    She took the precision of punching as an example. "Your energy is not expended until that last second when you're actually hitting the target. That's very challenging," Xanthe said, adding that it took her two to three weeks to digest and get comfortable with the body movements.

    Regarding the learning of Chinese martial arts as "eye-opening", Mia, another performer with 10-year dancing experience, told Xinhua that it has given her a different idea and exceeded her expectation of dance, which is "really funny and interesting".

    The mentality behind the White Crane practice impressed her the most, as the dancers have to hold a typical gesture to collect inner energy, she said.

    Seeing the Hong Kong-Sydney dance collaboration from idea to fruition, Linda Gamblin, head of training at Sydney Dance Company, said that she is keen to help Australian dancers find an internal position of understanding their movements through this cultural exchange project.

    "I find with some of our training in the West, we may be striving for perfection, and missing out on the understanding about the self," said Gamblin, also a ballet dancer who once performed in many Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in the 1980s.

    According to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney, the event is part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, aiming at bonding various cultures and dance forms and boosting international cultural exchange
    Needs pix, amirite?
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