“An Individual Soliloquy” is the latest production of the 10th year and ninth season of Yabin and Her Friends, and is the first project of its Silk Road Series. The Silk Road series covers dance works inspired by the stories of historical events happening on the Silk Road and those renowned characters, whose heritage and legacy in areas of arts, religion, and culture have been narrated throughout history.

 

“An Individual Soliloquy” recounts story of such an individual, an incomparable translator who translated over half of all Buddhist texts from Sanskrit to Chinese. His name is Kumārajīva. His life and his odyssey opened the depths of the drama along the chronological axis of his physical journey with widened breadth of evolution of his spiritual outlook.

 

 

It’s an epic that any conscientious artist would find constantly inspired by and with whatever form of expression they feel good at in their artistic creation. While half of the piece is choreographed by Yabin Wang, the other half is choreographed by Shintaro Hirahara who Yabin invited as her collaborator; other artists working on the creative team of this production include those from China, the U. K., France, Japan, amongst other countries.

 

Watching this show, the audience will feel the transitions between one’s dream and reality, illusion and soberness, juxtaposes of death and life through temporal and spatial regradation, reshuffle and suspension. Simultaneously the audience feels that they are traveling between tenses of past, present and future being driven by what they see and hear.

 

 

Director/Choreographer
Yabin Wang, Dancer, Choreographer, Artistic Director of Yabin Studio, and Actress. Yabin Wang also has won golden awards in many key national dance competitions, and has starred in several popular TV series in China.

As a dancer, choreographer and producer, she creates productions with an international perspective. Works she created in which she was also principle dancer have won raves from media and audiences around the world. She worked with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Tamara Rojo(ENB Artistic Director), Wim Vanderkeybus and so on.

 

 

Yabin was recognized as “one of the most important dancers in Asia” by Knack Focus. “She has a background in Chinese classical dance but has also worked to bring more contemporary dance to China, and headlines an annual program of creations, Yabin and Her Friends. Her performance gives us Chinese and contemporary dance as yin and yang.” by Financial Times.

 

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung commented her “Yabin Wang presented an incredible dance in a soothing rhythm; her flexible, flowing and energetic movements were fascinating.”

 

Choreographer
Shintaro Hirahara, Born in Hokkaido, Hirahara was a member of the dance company Noism from 2004 to 2007 before becoming a freelanced dancer till founding his own company, OrganWorks. As an experienced and outstanding choreographer, he has turned out to be a frequent collaborator with other choreographers such as Ryohei Kondo, Shintaro Oue, and Carmen Werner.

 

 

Artists in other genres that he has worked with include the theatre company Ikiume, comedian Kentaro Kobayashi, and visual artist Midori Harima.

 

Among the many awards and distinctions that Hirahara has received for his choreography are the Best Choreography Award at the Korean International Contemporary Dance Competition, a fellowship for young artists from the Japanese government's Agency of Cultural Affairs, Cultural Encouragement Award of the City of Otaru, “Best Upcoming Choreographer of 2015” of the Japanese dance magazine On Stage, as well as the “Next Generation Choreographer Award” and the “Audience Prize” of the 2015 Toyota Choreography Awards.

 

Production: Yabin Studio

Co-Production: Public Culture&Sports Development Center Futian District Shenzhen

Director: Wang Yabin

Choreographer: Shintaro Hirahara, Wang Yabin

Choreographer Assistant: Fan Lei