Contemporary dance routine developing a fan following in the capital

In a spacious dance studio in the 798 Art Zone, located in the northern part of Beijing, 66-year-old Yuan Xiaofei closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Following the instructions of teacher Madison Hoke, an American dancer-choreographer, Yuan then stretched her body to portray elements from nature, such as wind, water and fire.

Yuan, who recently completed a five-day dance course, which ran from Aug 17 to 21, says: "I learned that the course, which is called Gaga people class, is a kind of art therapy, which helps people recover from illness." Yuan has breast cancer and just had surgery for the second time in April.

Yuan was among the 50 amateur dancers, who joined contemporary dance workshops in Beijing held as part of the ongoing New Dance Festival, which is in its fifth year. The festival is being held by the Chaoyang Culture Center and the Beijing 9 Contemporary Dance Theater.

The event, which aims to popularize the art form, features Chinese and international dancer-choreographers who run workshops for amateur dancers of all ages.

Hoke from Fairmont, West Virginia was in Beijing for two years as a dancer with Sol Dance Company from Israel. Hoke says: "The students are very interested in what we are doing and they want to learn more about their bodies and about contemporary dance."

The language of movement called Gaga, was developed by the Batsheva Dance Company's artistic director, Ohad Naharin. It is based on a deep listening and awareness of the scope of physical sensations.

"We encourage students to use rich imagery that stimulates the imagination while dancing. It's about the passion to move and it helps develop physical possibilities, like flexibility, stamina and efficiency of movement," says Hoke, who started to dance at the age of 5 and has been a certified Gaga teacher since 2016.

Zhan Li, the executive director of the festival, who is also a dancer-choreographer with Beijing 9 Contemporary Dance Theater, says: "We invited Hoke to conduct one of the workshops because her method encourages people to move, whether you are a professional dancer or not. This matches with our goal for the festival, which is to engage more people in dance movements."

"We've taken our workshops to many communities and schools. Contemporary dance may not appeal to mainstream audiences in a big way, but we've built a fan base thanks to our workshops."

Born and raised in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, Zhan, 30, graduated from Nanjing University of the Arts and furthered her study at the University of Utah with a major in modern dance. In 2014, she returned to China and danced with Chinese dancer-choreographer Hou Ying, a former member of the internationally acclaimed Shen Wei Dance Art in New York. Zhan joined in Beijing 9 Contemporary Dance Theater in the end of 2015.

Besides Hoke, the workshops also had Australian dancer-choreographer Paul Blackman, Chinese dancer-choreographers Tang Yupei and Chao Ken as teachers.

Meanwhile, nine dance performances by artists from Spain, Israel, Albania and China will be staged in Beijing from Oct 8 to 15, and they are free to the public.

One of the highlights of the October program will be the theater's latest work, Knot, which marks the theater's ninth anniversary.

Barcelona-based dance company, GN | MC, will bring its latest award-winning work, Set of Sets, to Beijing. The work premiered in April 2018 in Spain, and involves repetitive and rhythmic gravity-defying movements while exploring the notion of time as a fundamental concept.

(China Daily Global 09/04/2019 page16)