More than 100 performers from southwest China's Guizhou Province will present Wind of Colourful Guizhou today and tomorrow. It will be held at the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing and will be the first event of the festival.
This is the first time a Chinese show opens the Meet In Beijing Festival since it started in 2000.
But Zhang Yu, managing director of China Culture & Entertainment Group, the organizing company of the festival, says the show is very exciting.
"It is a feast similar to the popular 'River Dance,' featuring tradition, rich folk arts and an exotic flavour. It is definitely worth the opening show," said Zhang.
Directed by Ding Wei, the Guizhou-born choreographer, the production premiered in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou in October last year and has since toured around China for more than 100 shows to wide acclaim.
"The show is a visual and audio feast. The setting, the lighting, the costumes and the impressive performances bring the audience a live image of the ethnic people's lives in Guizhou," said Tian Qing, a professor with the China Academy of Arts and editor-in-chief of the Art Critics magazine.
The story follows a Guizhou-born girl's trip back home and runs for 100-minutes featuring 22 dance numbers from 17 ethnic groups in Guizhou including Miao, Dong, Tujia, Yao, Bouyei, Shui, Gelao and Yi.
The major thrust and ethos of the performance concentrates on the changes of the land.
A Youduo, a popular and prominent singer from the Miao minority, will sing The Plateau My Hometown to start the show. She sings and performs in the theme role as a way to show the audience around her hometown. In this process she will introduce different costumes, ceremonies and lifestyles of different ethnic groups.
Choreographer Ding creates most dances based on the original versions of the different ethnic groups themselves and also incorporates some modern elements to improve the simple movements.
"The farmers' dances inspired me to create the whole show. They are simple, with strong rhythm and very distinctive from each other. I was born in Guizhou and the music and dances are things in my blood. What I do is to put them together through a storyline and make a little improvement to make them fit the theatre as well as the audience taste better," said Ding.
In addition to the opening show, the Chinese part also includes two plays adapted from the world-renowned Chinese writer Eileen Chang's stories.
Hong Kong Repertory Theatre will perform Love in a Fallen City at the Capital Theatre from May 17- 21. China National Drama Theatre Company will present the other love story Red Rose and White Rose at Poly Theatre from May 24-27. Actor Chen Jianbing performs the leading role as Zhengbao while TV and movie actress Chen Hao will act as both his wife the White Rose and his lover the Red Rose.
At the 2004 Meet In Beijing Festival, the UK percussion sensation Stomp and South Korean percussion show Nanta impressed Beijing audiences with their beats and rhythm.
This year, Li Biao, the Chinese percussionist and his international ensemble composed of nine percussionists from Germany, Denmark, Chile, Japan and China, will bring something different at the show Drumming Up the World at Poly Theatre on May 23. Everyone in the audience for the show will get a small drum and Li will lead them to "drum up the world."
"Percussion is not as popular as violin or piano in China and people have few concerts. I wish our concerts could open a window for the audience and help them enjoy percussion and try to get the beats and rhythm themselves," said Li, who started to play a small xylophone at the age of 5.
Li learned percussion at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and later the Munich Conservatory for three years. His technique understanding of percussion instruments and musical ability, has made him one of the most famous Asian percussionists in the world.
(China Daily April 28, 2006)
