YIBU DANCE

Information

Dancer, choreographer Chun Zhang (1988, Shanghai, China) met Kai Strathmann in 2015, during their master of choreography study, in the Folkwang University of Arts, Essen, Germany. In 2019, both of their productions with the Folkwang Dance Studio got nominated by the renowned Kurt Jooss Prize. Chun won the jury prize with her piece 'Being Far Away From' at the end. Same year, they founded YIBU DANCE.

'Yibu, Yibu' means 'step by step' in Chinese, representing the ethics and aesthetics of the ensemble:

Vision - challenging the existing notions of dance, they strive for visual, ambient, playful, concrete forms guiding to movement observations that have never been experienced before.

Originality - Treasuring research and experimentation, each production has its own unique creative process that derives from movement exploration and may involve sound, light, video, design and stage set.

Execution - demanding consequent and precise physicality, movement techniques have been released from genres and styles, and serve directly for the expression.

All these are aiming for the revelation of the beauty of life, that cannot be said by any other artform.

Their works have been invited, shown and resided in Fabrik Heeder, TanzFaktur, International Tanzmesse Düsseldorf, Festival Tanz NRW, First and Further Steps Festival, Move Festival, Campania Teatro Festival (IT), SILK Kliscope (AT), Yokohama Dance Collective (JP) among other theaters in Germany and China. They collaborate with other freelance artists from diverse disciplines and engage in artistic researches, workshops and dance films.


Details

Description
Original Contemporary Dance Arts WHIRLING LADDER | UPRIGHT 55 minutes, 5 dancers, ready to tour since 2024. In ancient Chinese myth, the one who creates humans from the earth is a creation goddess: Nüwa was walking along the Yellow River and suddenly discovered her reflection in the water. She decided to use the mud from the riverbed to sculpt figures like her own. Nüwa blew on the figures, and that's how life was breathed into them. The characters became small, intelligent and dexterous, living things that could walk and talk. Nüwa called them 'Ren' , meaning 'human'. WHIRLING LADDER | UPRIGHT addresses the question 'how does the spine deal with gravity over time?'. Drawing inspiration from the human developmental stages, the piece explores the physical, mental and spiritual significance of the human body's unique process of uprightness. It celebrates the animalistic, humane, divine beauty of women's backs with a minimalist spinal movement derived from somatic research and choreography: a poetic journey of the body rising from the earth and dancing with the three-dimensional force. Meanwhile, the female body is the earth where human arises.
Language
No
Translation
No
Staff / Cast / Credit
Choreography, Artistic Direction: Chun Zhang Performance: Ludovica Pinna, Francesca Pavesio, Enora Gemin, Nene Okada, Kyoko Oku Music, Sound: Kai Strathmann Light: Tobias Heide Costume: Anne Bentgens ​Production: YIBU DANCE ​Co-Production: Cultural Office Krefeld ​Funded by: Ministry for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, NRW Landesbüro Freie Darstellende Künste, City of Velbert ​Supported by: Bihong Zhao
Reception on the day
Please contact for the full video link
Genre
Dance
Country
Germany
Premiere
Japan premiere
Photo credit
Kai Strathmann

Contact

TEL
+4917657831870
Email
info@yibu.dance

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