Show of respect

Every time Philein Wang tours China she believes she is showing her love for her Chinese ancestors through her art of modern dance.

The talented Chinese-American returns to China each year and tonight plays at Caochangdi Work Station.

Philein is a multi-talented artist - she composes her own music, writes her own poetry and choreographs her own dance routines.

Experts from Dog King, Tiger Motion solo, Center, and Child of No Nation, her own composition will be presented during tonight's one-hour show.

Philein's work fuses Chinese, American and European influences. She is a dance innovator and has pioneered the Tiger Hip-hop motion.

"I have seen many young people in China playing Hip Hop which is a street dance invented by black people in the States," she says.

"But how many of them have ever seen a black man dancing Hip Hop? That is not their culture."

The 30-something dancing machine combines kungfu with hip hop dance to create an exposition of movement, which highlights power, grace, and flow.

The style is born from Wang's extensive studies in the Tiger Claw form of martial arts with former Olympic Champion and Jet Li classmate Patti Hao Li.

She also uses ballet, inspired by Liang Zhongren, the principle ballerina of National Ballet of China, who was the only Chinese dancer good enough to dance with Mikhail Baryshnikov.

And she also uses taiji, yoga, modern dance, and hip hop.

The centerpiece work appropriately titled Center features a solo dance as well as action from an ensemble of the best dancers in the local Beijing scene.

Wang studied at the Beijing Dance Academy, UCLA's World Arts and Cultures and has trained with Beijing Wushu Team former champions. These guys created the martial arts style seen in Jet Li movies and also in the Oscar-winning movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

She also received scholarships to the American Dance Festival, Lewitzky Workshop and Trisha Brown and is a soloist at Taiwan's world-renowned Cloudgate Dance Theater.

Since 2005, she has taken her dance and music on live tours to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei and Dalian.

Currently, Wang divides her time between the US and Asia and for three months every year, remains a choreographer/member of Cloudgate Dance Theater.

Dance fans will rejoice this month when the Beijing International Dance Festival is launched.

The festival began last night with the Tsao-founded Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC),

Tonight, the American Battery Dance Company performs while tomorrow night German performers will join the action.

"China is rising, not only in its economy but also in its booming arts," Wang says.

"I want to create something with particular Chinese styles which can give our children a sense of root in the country."

After her Beijing premier, she will tour the US.

Chen Nan

8:00 pm. Tonight

Caochangdi Work Station

105 Caochangdi, Chaoyang District. 6433-7243 / 6433-6143

(China Daily 05/10/2008 page6)