To my family and art that I love dearly and that my life depends on

Awakening

Contemporary dance by Choreographer SHI JING XIN

( Program of Shanghai Spring International Music Festival）

Nothing Is Real (2011)

New Program for American Dance Festival-ICR program

Xia Xie Bo Wa (2011)

 (also known as Dance Sacrifice)

Contemporary Dance Theatre

Sponsor: Shanghai Spring International Music Festival

Producer: XIN-ART-LAB

Supporter: Shanghai Dancers’ Association

Performer: Dance Academy, Shanghai Theater Academy; The Department of Musical Drama, Beijing Dance Academy

Time: 19:30 Pm, May 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th

Venue: Partners Theater, Children’s Palace, China Welfare Institute (64, Yan’an West Road, Shanghai)

Tickets: 280、180、120、50

Box- office: 021-962388

Book online: http://www.ticket2010.com/program.aspx?id=8740

About the work:

In 2010, SHI JING XIN, faculty member of Beijing Dance Academy and artistic director of XIN-ART-LAB won the scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council to visit Tisch Institute of New York University. She studied under the Avant-garde performance pioneer Professor Richard Schechner. The Awakening was her first work after her returning to China from studying in New York. Inspired by her multicultural experiences in New York and teeming with thoughts on Chinese art and Western art, she tried to bring bout the charm of contemporary dance by bringing the East and West together as well as the traditional and Avant-garde art. Now she is sharing this work with a broader audience of Shanghai Spring International Music Festival. Nothing is Real is a combination of pure abstract dance and realistic theater performance, which broadens the concept of dance and theater and presents profound artistic expression; Xia Xie Bo Wa-Awakening, white, Brahma (also known as Dance Sacrifice) explores the dialog between tradition and the contemporary, dance and new media. It was inspired by the trip to Tibet and Gitanjali, the poem of Rabindranath Tagore. It tells the three stages of life, the awakening, white and Brahma which symbolize the alienation and integration of life. It is a pilgrimage of the dancer to savior the true meaning of life.

The Awakening is an interdisciplinary performance, a pursuit of artistic faith and perseverance and a new adventure in Chinese contemporary dance. Fed on Chinese classic dance, the spiritual heritage of Tibetan Buddhism and western masks, this work incorporates space, drama, sound, videos and masks into dance in the contemporary context of the quest of life and spiritual faith.

About the producer and performer:

XIN-ART-LAB was set up by SHI JING XIN in 2009 as an experimental dance troupe. Since then, it produced Yuanming Yuan, The Empty City, and the World of Masks and performed in the American dance festival, Singapore Fringe festival, Beijing Modern Dance Festival, Guangdong Modern Dance Festival and also talked extensively in China and abroad. XIN-ART-LAB collaborates with dancers from Dance Academy, Shanghai Drama Academy and the Musical Department of Beijing Dance Academy to bring you this new experience of Chinese contemporary dance.

(more on http://blog.sina.com.cn/danceshijingxin)

About the director:

SHI JING XIN, born in Lanzhou, grew up in Shanghai and pursued her studies in Beijing and abroad. At the age of 12, she was admitted to the Shanghai Dance School to study Chinese traditional dance. At the age of 17, she majored in Choreography at the Beijing Dance Academy. From then on, her presence was seen in France, Germany, Belgian, Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, as well as London and New York.

In 2005, SHI JING XIN began her study of contemporary dance with Susan Buirge under a scholarship to France. Since 2007, she has been collaborating internationally thanks to the endowment from the Chinese Dancers’Association. In 2008, she became the youngest director to work on the team for the opening ceremony of the Olympics. In 2009, she set up the XIN-ART-LAB, experimenting with new media and contemporary dance. In 2010, Jingxin Shi was awarded a one-year-scholarship to Tisch, New York University as a visiting scholar to Professor Richard Schechner, the pioneer of avant-garde theatre.

Her works won the best dance video of the 39^th New York Dance Video Festival, and awards for the 6^th national solo, dual and trio dance competition, the 3^rd and 5^th Lotus Cup dance competition, the 2^nd CCTV dance competition, etc.

Her literary publications include the Body Story, and columns“New York Journals” in Chinese Art–Chinese Dance and “XIN-ART-LAB: Dance”in Dance Research . Her artistic works are Nothing is Real, Bow, the Human Zoo, A-Ma & A-Niang, Yuan ming Yuan, The Empty City, Memory, Time, Fragments, XIA XIE BO WA-Awakening、White、Brahma, The World of Masks, Our Days, and the Chinese Traditional Painting. (more on http://baike.baidu.com/view/1749612.htm)