Nominated for Best Choreography by Green Room Awards 2022
Photos by Gregory Lorenzutti
21 - 24 February 2020 8.30pm, in the Magdalen North Laundry, Abbotsford Convent for Asia TOPA
Performed at CSIAF RAW!Land, Shanghai
27 October 2017, 2pm
Workshop
28 October 2017, 2pm
Supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, Maxmised Chunky Move and the 45th anniversary of Australia-China diplomatic relations
Article from thepaper.cn:- http://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1841810?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0
Photographer : TIng Zhang
What Happened In Shanghai is a contemporary dance and multi-disciplinary work in development exploring concepts of family and cultural identity. My Chinese family’s roots are in Shanghai where my grandmother, Yuen Kun Chi studied the piano at the Shanghai Conservatorium during the Japanese occupation. Her best friend Chiubik perished in the turmoil and her dying wish was for my grandmother to replace her as wife and mother. My perception of my grandmother is framed by having known her only as an old austere woman whose language I couldn’t speak. Would I have a different opinion of my grandmother if I had been able to know her in her youth and better understand her life’s context? What was the essence of the moment when she made this momentous decision that led to the accident of my existence?
Australian and Shanghai dancers connect in the present by comparing differences between their relationships to their grandmother' pasts. In the process they also connect with the audience in the immediate present. What unfurls are reflections on the spaces between death and new life as experienced by the different artists.
Victoria Chiu - Choreographer
Kristina Chan - Dancer
Gabrielle Nankivell – Dancer
Lui Ya Nan - Dancer
Yi Ling Xi – Dancer
Mindy Meng Wang - Composer/ Guzheng
Ma Haiping - Electronic musician
Guo JinXin - Video Artist/set designer
Harriet Oxley - Costume design
These photos are taken from live and interactive research for What Happened In Shanghai at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, August 2016. Images by Grace He - ins@ziaciaociao
April site specific and studio development in Shanghai 2016 supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria
First research period was supported by Playking Foundation Asian Performing Arts Travel Grant