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Dance Drama Tang Wan, Rediscovering Classical Beaut

2008/03/01

A Chinese dance drama telling the great love story between Lu You and Tang Wan, both famous ancient Chinese poets, will be performed March 8–10 at the China Grand Theatre at 16 Xisansuan Beilu in Haidian District.

A splendid combination of traditional Chinese culture and modernity, Tang Wan was adapted from a screenplay by Wang Chuanliang and will be presented by the Beijing Dance Academy, the top dancing school in China. Main cast members of the play come from the BDA Youth Dance Company with Ming Wenjun, deputy dean of the academy supervising the Youth Dance Company, as the producer and Zhang Xin, head of the BDA Youth Dance Company, as supervisor. Leading dancers of the play, including Liu Yan, Wang Zihan and Shao Junting, are all award-winning young dancers of the company. As an innovation, the protagonist Tang Wan will be played by three dancers. One of them is Gu Xiaoyi, a junior student from Classical Dancing Department of the Beijing Dance Academy, who also performed as the lead dancer in the dance drama Spine Dates, which was created by Zhang Jigang, and the dance drama My Peony Pavilion.

Wang Chuanliang visited the Shen’s Garden several times during his service in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. Touched by the story of Lu and Tang, he wrote the screenplay for Tang Wan. After more than 800 years, the story of Tang and Lu has proven to be a timeless classic. It’s hard to define right and wrong in this heartbreaking story of a woman’s tragedy. However, the classical beauty of traditional Chinese women exemplified by Tang and her selflessness of love are rarities in the frenzy of our contemporary society. The theme delivered by the drama with its elegant body gestures is the eternal theme of human art: true love lasts forever.

 

Tang Wan

Time: March 8-10

Venue: China Grand Theatre, 16 Xisanhuan Belu, Haidian District (get off at Wanshousi Stop)



 
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