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As the finale to the celebration of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in Canada, the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) will present an epic dance spectacle "Qingming Riverside" in Toronto on January 4-5, 2013. This North American premiere is a rare opportunity for Canadians to see a new classical dance featuring the profound history of Chinese culture.
"Qingming Riverside", regarded as "a stage wonder that arises from a painting masterpiece; a gateway to the prosperous utopian city of the Song Dynasty", has been invited to perform at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2010 Shanghai Expo. The dance was originated from the HKDC and the performance in Toronto was presented by the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts and China Performing Arts Agency, and supported by the Home Affairs Bureau of the HKSAR Government and the Department of Culture of Guangdong Province.
Speaking today (November 13, Toronto time) at the media launch, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto (HKETO), Miss Gloria Lo, welcomed the upcoming visit of the HKDC, as Hong Kong's cultural ambassadors, to bring this dance of the national treasure class to the Canadian audience. She described the event as a fruitful result of the Hong Kong-Guangdong cooperation.
"'Qingming Riverside' embodies Chinese culture and is created to explore the boundlessness of creativity. It makes a thousand-year-old painting come to life on the stage," said Miss Lo. "It also brings to live the scenes showing the vibrant trading activities on both sides of the Bian River in spring time, reflecting the prosperity of the capital city Bianjing (now Kaifeng, Henan) in the Northern Song Dynasty. The theme is particularly relevant to Hong Kong, which is a highly successful financial and trading centre."
Featuring more than 40 dancers, "Qingming Riverside" has been performed in Hong Kong and in Mainland China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing and so on, for more than 30 times and has dazzled more than 40 000 audiences since its premiere in 2007 in Hong Kong.
Inspired by the most important scroll painting in Chinese art history – Along the River during the Qingming Festival, the HKDC depicts life in the capital of Northern Song dynasty in the early 12th century in broad painterly impressions, inviting the audience to travel through time to the dynamic city on the Bian Canal through dancing drama.
The script and research of Qingming Riverside is directed by Mr Gerard Tsang and its Director and Choreographer is Mr Leung Kwok-shing. In the scene of Canal Willows, female dancers on chopines imitate the willows swaying in the breeze to simulate feet-binding of the period. Spring Countryside draws on vernacular donkey dance to recapture the scene of donkey caravans carrying charcoal into the city as depicted in the painting. Rituals and Festivities incorporates a variety of traditional dances, including a ritual parade and stylised horse-riding movements from Chinese opera, to portray the lively, bustling capital city bursting with buskers, acrobats and opera performers showing off their skills.
Together with traditional and ritual dances such as boat rowing on land, fish watching, lever dance and squat dance, the kaleidoscope of vernacular dances come alive on stage, reinterpreted with modern aesthetics.
Details of the "Qingming Riverside" performance in Toronto are as follows:
Date: January 4 (Friday) and January 5 (Saturday), 2013 at 8pm
Place: Sony centre for the Performing Arts
1 Front Street East, Toronto, ON M5E 1B2
Tickets: From CAD$28 to CAD$88 can be purchased in person at the Sony centre box office, Ticketmaster ticket outlets, over the phone at 1-855-872-SONY (7669) or online at www.sonycentre.ca . Discounts are available for groups.
Ends/Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Issued at HKT 09:13
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