"Cross Border," a multi-media theatrical production created by Chinese dancer Jin Xing and British jazz musician Joanna MacGregor, finally arrived in Beijing to raise some eyebrows over the weekend.
The production had already premiered in Shanghai, and was also performed in Guangzhou and Chongqing.
The capital's theatre-goers, who have seen various contemporary and avant-garde works, regarded it as one of the most worthwhile performances this year.
Like its premiere at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre on October 18, Beijing audiences loved the show and gave long standing ovations. All the performers reappeared at least six times to answer curtain calls.
The show starts with a 20-minute video featuring "Music from Shanghai Street" scored by MacGregor and shot by Kathy Hinde, a British visual artist.
The rhythmic pictures and music impressed the audiences, as did the British artists' response to contemporary metropolitan social life in China.
The show after the video features Jin's modern dance accompanied by music scored and arranged by MacGregor and sound engineer Matthew Fairclough.
MacGregor devised the score by incorporating both ancient and modern music such as jazz, classical, world music, electronica and traditional Chinese folk.
As a famous avant-garde pianist, MacGregor was also influenced by such musical forms as Peking Opera, Pingju Opera - a style of northern Chinese opera - and instruments like the erhu and pipa.
"I like the percussion in Peking Opera very much, since it is very rhythmic. I fused the sounds of Peking Opera singers and Chinese instruments with Western music," MacGregor said.
Inspired by MacGregor's music, Jin choreographed the dance spontaneously.
"This time the dance does not have a clear story-line. Joanna as a traveller in China expressed her feeling for the city with music. For me, as a resident of the city, I just wanted to depict the pace of life of the persons in it," Jin said.
The dance is composed of the elements of the city's rhythms and the anxieties of urban life, with its pleasures, joys and heartbreak. It is divided into five chapters.
The elements of every chapter come straight out of Shanghai residents' everyday lives, such as scenes depicting the dog-eat-dog life of a white-collar worker who has to wolf down his lunch, or sketching the young people's night life in chic bars in Shanghai.
"I am very satisfied if the audience is moved by just one scene, or if their thoughts are stimulated by any part of the performance," Jin added.
During the last chapter of the performance, both Jin and MacGregor improvise, and from time to time they communicate with each other through eye contact.
"Jin Xing and I share a lot of character traits, which makes our collaboration an enjoyable process," MacGregor said. "We hope our performances will cross the boundaries of different cultures."
Jin believes the collaboration is a dialogue between East and West: a process of mutual communication rather than an experiment.
The two artists, MacGregor and Jin, are both highly-recognized in their respective arenas.
Jin is a distinguished dancer both at home and abroad.
Her challenging dance performances such as "Red and Black," "Sunflower" and "The Drunken Beauty" have marked her as one of China's most gifted contemporary dancers.
MacGregor is one of Britain's most versatile and innovative pianists. She has performed in over 40 countries, collaborating with major figures in classical, jazz and pop music, including Django Bates, Andy Sheppard, Harrison Birtwistle and Pierre Boulez.
Moreover, MacGregor owns the record label Sound Circus, which released the hugely acclaimed "Play" album, nominated for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in the United Kingdom.
The innovative collaboration all started with e-mail.
"Joanna and I have been friends for a long time, and she sent me some pieces of her newly composed music and I was very interested in them. Then we started to work on it," Jin said.
(China Daily November 5, 2002)
