Dance Theatre - The Moon Opera Oct. 19th - Oct. 20th, 2015 Malanhua Theater
This performance is an adaptation of the most famous novel from the Asian Book Award winner Bi Feiyu. It takes a piercing look into the world of Chinese opera and its female stars. In a fit of diva jealousy, Xiao Yanqiu, star of The Moon Opera, disfigures her understudy with boiling water. Spurned by the troupe, she turns to teaching. Twenty years later, a rich cigarette-factory boss offers to underwrite a restaging of the cursed opera, but only on the condition that Xiao Yanqiu returns to the role of Chang'e. So she does, this time believing she has fully become the immortal moon goddess. Set against the drama, intrigue, jealousy, retribution, and redemption of backstage Peking opera. The Moon Opera is a stunning portrait of women in a world that simultaneously reveres and restricts them. (Supported by 2014 China National Art Fund)
Wang Yabin
Dancer, choreographer and actress, Artistic Director of Yabin Dance Company (Yabin Studio), Yabin also has won golden awards in many key national dance competitions, and has been starring in several popular TV series in China. As dancer, choreographer and producer, she creates productions with an international perspective. Works she created in which she was also principle dancer won raves from media and audiences around the world. She was recognized as "one of the most important dancers in Asia" by Knack Focus. "She has a background in Chinese classical dance but has also worked to bring more contemporary dance to China, and headlines an annual programme of creations, Yabin and her Friends...Her performance gives us Chinese and contemporary dance as yin and yang…" by Financial Times. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented her "Yabin Wang presented an incredible dance in a soothing rhythm; her flexible, flowing and energetic movements were fascinating." In 2013 Yabin Studio commissioned Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and production the new piece "Genesis". In 2014, Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director of the English National Ballet has invited Yabin Wang to choreograph a dance work for a new production by English National Ballet dedicated to female choreographers entitled "She Said". The performance will be premiered at Sadler’s Wells in April, 2016.
