Chinese programme in the Julidans festival

The Living Dance Studio, one of the few independent dance companies in China, was founded by Wen Hui and Wu Wenguang. The performances of the group are meant as reports or documentaries which reflect on modern daily life in the People’s Republic. During Julidans the group will show two versions of the performance Memory.

Chinese activities during Julidans 2009

In present day China it is still difficult, because of censorship, to express individual feelings and experiences through dance or any other art form. Nonetheless, using a unique mixture of interviews, movement, video and music, the choreographer Wen Hui made taboo breaking performances about the female body and SARS. In Memory Wen Hui, together with the actress Feng Dehua, returns to her youth, a youth spent in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution during the Mao era. Within the performance images are shown from the documentary My Time in the Red Guards, made by Wu Wenguang and on Saturday he will appear on stage, together with Wen Hui and Feng Dehua, during the original 8-hour version of the performance to recollect memories of their childhood and to shed light on a period in the history of their country in relation to which criticism and grieve are still out of place, since the government has never officially repudiated the tactics of Mao. There are two versions of the performance; on Friday the short version, on Saturday the complete 8-hour version. During the 8-hour version the audience can walk in and out freely.
In 2007 Julidans invited eleven young (read: beginning) dance makers from Asia, Africa and the Netherlands to work together and exchange experiences for a number of days. This resulted in three performances which were shown during Julidans 2008 under the title MIXED. Now the Artists’ Lab takes up residence in the new Bijlmer Parktheater in Amsterdam Zuidoost. The results of Artists’ Lab 2009 will be presented during Julidans 2010.