After Dark
Choreography ：Zhang Xi
Performance: X-zero Dance Theater (Hangzhou, CN)

 

After Dark is adapted from the short novel of the same name by the famous Japanese writer, Haruki Murakami. It reflects on happenings between 11 pm and 6 am and the self-breakdown of urbanites and the distortion caused by the structured space in a city towards human nature.

 

 

Zhang Xi is artistic director of X-zero Dance Theater. He graduated from School of Dance of Shandong College of Arts and receiving a master's in Modern Dance from Kangwon National University Faculty of University of Culture and Arts in South Korea studying under professor CHO Sung Hee. ZHANG has received various awards including first prize in 8th Mount Tai Literary and Art Award in Shandong Province, Golden Lion Award of 16th World Dance Art Competition in Singapore, and first prize in Youth Dance Competition in Shandong Province for several years. As an independent choreographer/dancer, ZHANG has worked with many Korean choreographers and performed at Chuncheon International Mime Festival, the Seoul International Dance Festival, the Guangdong Modern Dance Week, the Beijing Dance Double-week, the Hangzhou International Dance Week and other major dance festivals.

 

A Short, Thick Rainbow
Choreography/Performance: Unlock Dancing Plaza (HK, CN), Namstrops (JP)

 

Co-created by Unlock Dancing Plaza from Hong Kong and Namstrops from Japan, A Short, Thick Rainbow is a piece combining dance and sports where dancers of different cultures and training backgrounds together build a cultural rainbow bridge. The piece premiered in Hong Kong has since been presented in Love As Much As You Dance Festival in Tokyo, the Comic Dance Festival in Seoul, the Macau City Fringe Festival and the Movement Art in Miyazaki Japan.

 

 

Founded in 2002, Unlock Dancing Plaza collaborates with artists from different disciplines in hopes of bringing a new type of enjoyment in contemporary dance through its liberation and co-creation process. The Company’s “Unlock Body Lab” is devoted to exploring dance through the lens of the body, delving into the study of the organic combination of body movement and body consciousness. The group’s recent productions include Simon Says, Reborn, and Wanderer, and has received various awards including Hong Kong Dance Awards. The company is financially supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council since 2009.

 

Namstrops was founded in 2006 in Miyazaki, Japan. Reversal of its name spells “sportsman”, reflecting its take on dance. The group is devoted to exploring the potentials in sports, art and education and the combination of such to become the methods of “Contemporary Artistic Physical Education”. Members of the group have rich teaching experience, and derived a “creative dance” program and produced study materials for the Japanese physical education curriculum. Together with the University of Miyazaki, Namstrops runs a Miyazaki C-Dance Center driving forward dance development and community participation. The group has been invited to perform and hold workshops in countries such as China, Estonia, Romania, South Korea, and the UK.