Introductory Text

A Body Poem about Life, Inspired by Flowers and Birds

Dancers, facing to the audience, sway their hips and move their arms to the rhythmic music. Their dance moves seem like a gesture of invitation, or temptation and challenge. The performance can be divided into several parts: the first presents the conflict between dancers’ bodies and the external environment; the second part, which begins with dancers taking off their clothes, seems to be a metaphor for breaking free and returning to self. In this part, male and female pairs return to the love and entanglement of their bodies. Women bloom like flowers, while men are poised like beasts to show their masculine power. As dancers, holding crystal bowls, slowly reappear on the stage enveloped in smoke, a sense of ritual is created. At the end, dancers form a circle as if symbolising an indulgent celebration for the return to the origins of life, thus comes the climax of the whole dance piece.

 

Peng, T. (2018, July 24). A Body Poem about Life, Inspired by Flowers and Birds. Beijing Youth Daily, p. B01.

This article is excerpted and translated from Chinese