| Chinese Folk Evolution at the Roundhouse |
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| Culture | |
| Monday, 11 January 2010 | |
'Towards the Border' - Chinese Folk Poetry brought to life
Composed of three sections, the performance explores the traditional song Border, Mountain, Moon' based on a poem by the famous Taoist poet Li Bai. Set to 360 degree visuals, live and electronic musicians and dance, the piece raises the questions Is music held in time? Can traditional folk be released and understood as part of the here and now? You will be part of a truly immersive experience, which will take you on a journey that explores the past, present and future 'lives' of an ancient Chinese piece Artists include Cheng-Ying on the Liuqin and Zhongruan, dancer Wei-Chun Luo who has a background in Beijing Opera, classically trained cellist Francesca Ter-burg on the cello, jazz musician Ben McDonnell, film specialist Chien-Nin Huang and illustrator Tom Fewings. Background Towards the Border was written by Ying Tan and Amy McDonnell. Ying Tan (24) was born in China in Zhengzhou, Henan and moved to Canada at the age of nine. Although she grew up mostly in North America, she still considers herself to be rooted to her Chinese background. She came to England to study her MPhil in Arts, Culture, and Education at Cambridge. She has worked for the Albion Gallery which represents contemporary Chinese artists such as Ai Wei Wei and Xu Bing. She has a particular interest in Beijing Opera, which was considered as an art form for Toward the Border. She is especially happy that WeiChun has a background in traditional Beijing Opera dance and brings this inspiration into the performance.
She has worked in the David Risley Gallery in East London and the Oxo Gallery. She is particularly interested in exploring cultural issues by combining different art forms to provide a performance with, often contradictory, layers. She says that influences which seeped through into the construction of Toward the Border include Chinatown Artspace's Piccadilly Revisited and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's Wind Shadow. After Towards the Border she will be revisiting her passion for Latin American by taking a trip to Cuba as a freelance journalist. How 'Towards the Border' came about We chose to use music as a starting point and found the piece 'Border, Mountain, Moon' after a lengthly listening session. We carefully avoided anything that the lute player in Toward the Border, Cheng-Ying, described as being "too beautiful to mess around with" or anything with a strong Communist sentiment. It was important for us, however, that this song would create a sense of familiarity, or even nostalgia, in some Chinese members of our audience. By using a diverse range of art forms and by transforming the folk song through a series of developments, we aim to thread together traditional and contemporary practices in order to engage with the music and the audience. We hope that in doing this, it will bridge a gap between admirers of both traditional and contemporary Chinese art in the London community. " SHOW DETAILS: Dates: 19 and 20 January 2010 Location: Dorfman Hub, The Roundhouse Time: Performance starts at 8pm Cost: £5.00 Entrance Tickets can be bought at the Roundhouse box office or online here |
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An array of artists come together in a performance titled 'Towards the Border,' with their own interpretation of a traditional Chinese folk song using a fusion of live music, dance and film animation.
