The avant-garde Iceland Dance Company will make its Shanghai
debut Sunday with works about love. In addition, the laugh-a-minute
Spanish physical comedy trio Tricicle will perform "Sit," the
history of the chair, from May 5-7.
Iceland is known to most Chinese as the home of?musician
Bjork and a land where we can see the magnificent Northern lights.
However, many are unaware that the Northern European country has
also cultivated artistic forms with a unique Icelandic flavor.
Tomorrow night, the Iceland Dance Company will make its debut in
Shanghai and perform two of its award-winning modern dance works
under the universal theme of love.
In "Luna" (2004 Icelandic "Dance Award" and "Best Dance Piece"),
a group of young people dances the waltz of life under the
moonlight to cherish their youthful dreams and burning passion.
Images of love, longing, hope, and joy are orchestrated into a
dreamlike gypsy serenade. "Happy New Year" fuses theatrical humor
and sarcasm into choreography tailor-made for the dancers.
The Dance Europe once described the company as "a sexy group,"
which was "plainly adept at theatrical dance with a high kinetic
edge." The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it a "superb
world-class company." It will move to Guangzhou and Beijing after
the Shanghai premiere.
Meanwhile, Spain's beloved physical comedy group Tricicle will
return to Shanghai during the May Day holiday, staging its latest
hit "Sit" for audiences who might have missed their extraordinary
performance in 2005.
The Spanish comedy trio is acclaimed for having created a new
performing genre: a mixture based on silent movies, clown
techniques, mime, and conventional theater.
Its motto is "to hear the audience laughing every 10
seconds."
The chair has always been an indispensable object in the odyssey
of human beings. It has witnessed peace treaties, mouth-watering
feasts, congenial conversations, sensational shows, tough trials,
long waits, as well as passionate love affairs.
In the play, the chair is the focal point, and its history is
told, from the time man, or woman first placed her bottom on a rock
or a tree stump.
"Tricicle's plays are often created based on everyday life and
everyday objects," says Ren Yi from Shanghai Oriental Arts Center
where the play will be staged.
"It aims to make people laugh through a subtle, simple and
surprising type of humor - somewhere between the reality and the
absurd."
The group first visited Shanghai one and a half years ago during
their Asia debut.
(Shanghai Daily April 29, 2007)
