SILK ROAD SOLILOQUY
Wang Yabin’s latest work brings to life through dance the journey of the Buddhist monk and scholar, Kumarajiva, and his journey across China via the ancient trading network
Chinese dancer-choreographer Wang Yabin’s latest work, An Individual Soliloquy, brings to life the journey of the Buddhist monk and scholar, Kumarajiva (344-413), who is famous for translating Buddhist texts into Chinese.
Kumarajiva — the son of a Hindu father from India and a princess of the ancient Kucha, which lies in present day Aksu prefecture in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region — traveled to Liangzhou, Gansu province, and later to Xi’an, Shaanxi province through the trading networks of the ancient Silk Road.
The dance drama, which will premiere at Tianqiao Performing Arts Center in Beijing on Sept 14 to 16, is the latest season of Wang’s annual production, Yabin and Her Friends. Since 2009, the project has gathered more than 200 artists from around the world to produce a different dance piece every year.
“Among the wide range of goods, pilgrims and knowledge exchanged among each culture along the Silk Road is Buddhism,” says Wang in Beijing. “When I prepared for the latest edition of Yabin and Her Friends, I wanted to tell Kumarajiva’s story, which is not so well known among Chinese audiences.”
International collaborations have been a driving force behind Yabin and Her Friends. In An Individual Soliloquy, Wang choreographed the first half, which takes audiences back to life in the 5th century and introduces them to Kumarajiva, and she invited Japanese dancer-choreographer Shintaro Hirahara to work on the second half, which shows the links between Kumarajiva and the modern world.
“It’s been like a spiritual journey working with Wang on An Individual Soliloquy. Before that, I knew little about Kumarajiva,” says Hirahara in Beijing, adding that it was the first time that he worked with Chinese dancers and he tried to design moves for each one based on their own personalities.
Hirahara spent about 20 days in the capital to rehearse with the dancers. For months prior to his Beijing visit, he had discussed the piece with Wang via email.
“The theme of the dance allows me to imagine stories and people from thousands of years ago, which is new to me,” he adds.
Born in 1981 in Japan’s Hokkaido, Hirahara started his career as a professional classical ballet and hiphop dancer, before becoming a contemporary dancer-choreographer.
He danced with Noism dance company from 2004 to 2007 and established OrganWorks, his own dance company, in 2011.
Japanese composer Yuta Kumachi, who has worked with Hirahara before, wrote music for An Individual Soliloquy, which is described as “taking audience through a visualized journey” by Wang.
“With his music, I could see desert, sunshine, war and a bustling modern city,” adds Wang.
To get inspired, Wang, along with the seven dancers of her studio, traveled to places where Kumarajiva stayed and visited, including the 1,600-year-old Kumarajiva temple in Wuwei, Gansu province, as well as the Hexi Corridor, a part of the Silk Road in Gansu province, and ancient grotto complexes in Mogao and Yulin.
“It felt like traveling with a time machine. When we saw those mural paintings, we had conversations with the past. I hope the audience will share the similar feeling when they watch An Individual Soliloquy,” Wang says.
The 35-year-old Wang, from Tianjin, started learning traditional Chinese folk dance at the age of 6. She is a graduate of the Beijing Dance Academy and is best known for choreographing a dance sequence in Zhang Yimou’s 2004 movie House of Flying Daggers and her performances at CCTV’s Spring Festival galas.
Besides Hirahara, Wang has collaborated with international dancer-choreographers, including the former star of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, with whom Wang choreographed a dance work, Dream in Three Episodes, and Sidi Larbi Chekaoui from Belgium, who choreographed Genesis.
In 2012, Wang met Tamara Rojo, the artistic director and principal dancer of the English National Ballet, in London for the first time when she was touring Britain with Genesis. Rojo invited Wang to be part of the English National Ballet’s She Said project, which comprised Wang’s piece, M-Dao, ColombianBelgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Broken Wings and Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton’s Fantastic Beings, and premiered at Sadler’s Wells in London in 2016.
In April 2017, She Said won the 2017 Laurence Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in dance for expanding its repertoire.
An Individual Soliloquy, will tour nationwide after its premiere in Beijing.
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It felt like traveling with a time machine. When we saw those mural paintings, we had conversations with the past.”
Wang Yabin