XIANG XU DANCE
Choreographer: Xiang Xu
Dancers: Dance Department of Beijing Sport University
Musical Dance for Cuju《蹴鞠乐舞》
Open-minded, unconstrained and militant, all these words were used to define women in Tang Dynasty. A pioneering age inevitably brought up the peculiar femininity which integrated the boldness of the Han Dynasty and the elegance of the Song Dynasty. Cuju like soccer nowadays was a sport in ancient China and also a recreation of women. Focusing on this historical fact, the composition was created to depict the vigor and militarism of Tang Women.
At the beginning was a swat drumbeat. The successive drumbeats took the audience into the women Cuju game of ancient China. At the riverside in early March, a group of vigorous and bright women light-heartedly played Cuju with a dancing style. In the unchained and sometimes graceful music, they presented the audience with an agile and dynamic dance drama. At a flourishing age, people in Tang Dynasty were confident enough to pursue and enrich their life. The powerful movements in this piece were mingled with the subtle and gentle charms of women. A glance back, a dodge, all the balances of power were obvious evidence of Chinese Yin and Yang culture. At the same time, the quick conversion of spaces and powers also referred to some dancing features of the ancient western regions.
Choreographer: Xiang Xu
Dancer: Haifeng Guo
Metaphysical Fugue 《玄游》
This piece was my first trial on Chinese Han-Tang Classical Dance when I was a sophomore. Meanwhile, it also marked the beginning of my choreography after theoretical researches on the Chinese Classical Dance style and aesthetic system. Staying aloof from the existing hidebound ideology, I chose to draw materials from the Wei-Jin Period, because it was a time filled with Taoist concepts. Unique cultural individuality and characteristic metaphysic thought acquainted me with another aspect of the personality of Chinese literati.
Chinese Folk Dance (Dai Nationality)
Choreographer: Xiang Xu
Dancer: Shen Liyuan
Naga《纳加》
The piece began with dull thunders and then turned into Hinayana Buddhist chanting. In this way, I wanted to express that Naga was woke up from deep sleep by Buddha dharma. With the slow-rhythm music at the first half-section, it seemed that Naga went back to the Buddha in response to the call of Buddha dharma and then showed his aggressive and intrepid spirit to defend Buddhist truths. In the second section, the rapid-rhythm was designed to reveal the unyielding spirit of Naga when encountering evils. Here I just made a large analysis on the former and latter music but did not intend to convey them to the audience in the form of telling a story. By adding a religious godhood temperament into the whole dance, I hope that audience can appreciate and experience my meditation on the godhood world from an overall perspective.
Folk Dance
Choreographer: Xiang Xu
Dancers: Beijing Dance Academy
The Journey to the East《鸿雁·东归》
Strong-minded Torgut struggled hard on their way home in the East with the belief that it is a success for them to go home alive.
This history about their eastward journey impressed us deeply because of their ardent love for their motherland. It was the affection that urged us to create this composition.
Regardless of coldness and hunger, Torgut continued their journey even if their families and relatives passed away. In the process, we chose the graceful swan goose to symbolize the straightforward Torgut. The sharp contrast enabled us to combine emptiness with reality and endowed our composition with more imagination space.
Swan goose, autumn grass, and horse head string instrument, together with long-absent cooking smoke, all equipped those anchorless aliens with a sense of belonging. On the way, what moved us were the spirit of nationality and an epic of eastward heroes.