Entering its fifth year, the annual Guangdong Modern Dance Festival (GDMDF) is re-scheduled from May to the beginning of the summer holiday – a time when people usually travel. Every year, hundreds of young Chinese choreographers and dancers travel to Guangzhou to premiere their new works in the Festival. Already enrolled in this year’s festival are Chinese participants from Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Gansu, Fujian, Henan, Zhejiang and Guangdong Province, as well as international artists from France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the USA, Australia, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. This unique dance event in China will host 70 master classes and more than 60 new works over seven consecutive days from July 20 to 26, 2008.

A new addition this year is the “Guangdong International Dance Camp”. The Dance Camp runs concurrently with the Festival in the first week, and continues for two more weeks beyond, is an important development of the Dance Festival.

Another development this year is the “Springboard”, a new platform where maturing Chinese artists, as well as professional artists, will work together to create challenging and visionary works. Over the years, GDMDF has grown from a window on the latest trend in international dance development to the hub of Chinese modern dance development where new ideas are turned into reality.

The Festival is unique in its achievement in enhancing exchange and understanding, as well as the pursuit of excellence in modern dance creation.
GDMDF consists of five major parts
1. The Sweatshop –renowned choreographers and dancers will give almost 70 master classes to Festival participants over six consecutive mornings;
2. The Chatter Box – an early afternoon discussion forum devoted to the exchange of ideas among Festival participants ;
3. The Youth Dance Marathon (YDM) - an open platform for young artists to present more than 40 new works over six consecutive afternoons.
4. The Springboard -, a platform for emerging and established artists to present over 10 experimental and visionary artistic works.
5. The Main Stage - performances of professional artists and companies:
    5.1 Opening Party: Guangdong Modern Dance Company : Environmental Dance: Merry-Go-Round
    5.2 Pappa Tarahumara (Japan) : Three Sisters
    5.3 City Contemporary Dance Company (Hong Kong) : HerStory
    5.4 Expressions Dance Company (Australia): Ice & Memory
    5.5 Absolute Solo  
        - Cheng-chieh Yu (USA): Dancing Mother Courage
        - Arata Mao (Japan): Picnic
        - Alessandro Carboni (Italy): ABQ - mechanical extensions in four arithmetic operations
    5.6 BeijingDance / LDTX: Unspeakable
    5.7 La Campagne ACTE (France): Danse Experimenta

We look forward to meeting you at Guangdong Modern Dance Festival !

The 5th Guangdong Modern Dance Festival is presented by
the Xinghai Performing Arts Development Group and City Contemporary Dance Company Ltd (Hong Kong);
organized by Guangdong Modern Dance Company and Guangdong Xinghai Performing Arts Development Company Ltd; and co-organized by BeijingDance / LDTX (Beijing), Guangdong Dance School and Guangdong Song and Dance Theater.