– 23rd
"INNER VOICES" features award-winning dancers from China,
Netherlands, Brazil and Austria.
Opening performance and media reception, Friday 19th September, 7.30pm
Organized by the famous Shanghai-based dancer and choreographer Jin
Xing, the Shanghai Dance Festival returns for its third year under
the heading "Inner Voices". Leading performers from Brazil, Holland
and Austria join the Jin Xing Dance Theatre in a series of
performances which focus on the idea of dance as an expression of the
inner complexity of artists.
Highlights of SDF 2008 include Chris Haring / Liquid Loft from
Austria, performing at the Shanghai Theatre Academy on 20th and 21st
September (Saturday & Sunday). The winners of the Golden Lion at
last year's Biennale for Contemporary Dance in Venice will present
their award-winning creation Posing Project B – The Art of Seduction.
It's the first time this masterpiece has been staged outside Europe –
and admission is free! Not to be missed…
SDF also presents a world premiere of the astonishing Brazilian
soloist Chaim Gebber performing One. In an unadorned setting in the
historical space of Creek Art, Berlin-based Gebber will share with
the audience his reflections about living dance in the cultural
triangle of three continents. (22nd-23rd September)
The festival opens this Friday evening with Improvisation: in a one-
off West meets East performance, Dutch master musician Han Bennink
will accompany dancers from Jin Xing Dance Theatre in a performance
at Z58, a post-modern office building in the heart of Shanghai (at 58
Panyu Lu - NB also pronounced Fanyu Lu). Journalists are warmly
welcomed – and the performance will be followed by a reception for
SDF artists, partners, friends and media representatives. If you
would like to attend please RSVP to:
021 6327 0578 or email: shanghai_dance_festival@yahoo.com
Interviews with Jin Xing and the performers can also be arranged.
Festival Info hotline: 6327 0578
Email: shanghai_dance_festival@yahoo.com
Website: www.shanghai-dance.com
Jin Xing Biography:
Born male in 1967 in Shenyang, north-east China, Jin Xing is one of
China's leading choreographers and dancers, and a celebrity for many
other reasons too! A member of China's Korean minority, Jin Xing
enrolled at the age of nine in the famous military dance ensemble in
Shenyang, whose teachers were among China's top classical ballet
performers. At the age of 17 Jin Xing won the Best Dancer of China
Award, and at 19, after becoming the first Chinese dancer to win a
grant from the Asian Cultural Council of America and the American
Dance Festival, he moved to New York where he studied with Martha
Graham, Merce Cunningham and Jose Limon. In 1991 Jin Xing won the
"Best Choreographer Award" at the American Dance Festival for his
creation "Half Dream". After spending two years working in Europe,
Jin Xing then returned to China and taught at the National
Choreography and Modern Dance Training workshops commissioned by the
Chinese Ministry of Culture.
In 1994 Jin Xing resigned as Colonel from the Chinese military dance
company, and the following year made a decision which would change
his life - to undertake China's first officially approved sex-
operation, and fulfil a dream he had nurtured since childhood. After
several months in hospital and nearly a year's break, Jin Xing
confounded the expectations of many critics Jin Xing by returning
successfully to the stage with the creation "Black and Red". She
later set up the Beijing Modern Dance Ensemble, the capital's first
modern dance troupe, before moving to Shanghai in 2000. She now
leads her own ensemble, the "Jin Xing Dance Theatre," China's first
independent modern dance and performance group. The company has won
acclaim in China and internationally, appearing in festivals such as
La Biennale di Venezia, Dance Umbrella London and Steps in
Switzerland. Highlight productions include "Shanghai Tango",
"Carmina Burana", "Shanghai Beauty", and the recent "Made in China -
Return of the Soul."
Renowned for expressing forthright opinions, and regularly featured
in the Chinese media, Jin Xing has also played leading roles in
theatre and cinema productions in China and abroad. In 2006, she
launched the "Shanghai Dance Festival," the first international dance
festival in China, out of a desire to promote culture in her home
country. Despite receiving no official funding, it has brought a
series of leading performers to Shanghai, and helped build links
between Chinese dance and the outside world. Jin Xing's work has
been recognized with awards including honorary membership of ELIA,
the European League of Institutes of the Arts, and an honorary
doctorate from Dartington College of Arts in the UK. Her
autobiography has been published in a number of European and Asian
languages; the English version, 'Shanghai Tango', was published by
Atlantic Books in 2007.
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