Retour en Avant / Past Forward Biennale de la Danse Lyon - France

Wen HuiWen Hui began dancing as a child.Aged 13, she started to studytraditional dance at the YunnanConservatory, before entering thechoreography department of theBeijing Dance Academy. After graduating,she refused to perform onthe state circuit, preferring instead tocreate her own forms. She left to continueher contemporary-dance trainingin the United States and Europe, beforereturning to Beijing, where she founded herown company in 1994.The Living Dance Studio is one of the up-and-comingindependent companies on China’s artisticand cultural scene. It receives no state funding,and has made a huge contribution to developingnew forms of artistic expression. The companydefines itself as a collective of artists from differentbackgrounds. It aims to convey an image ofcontemporary China using multimedia, danceand theatre. “To me, dance is an expression ofidentity, an interpretation of one’s own life,”says the choreographer. Her company’s mostfamous work is Report on Giving Birth (1999),which surveys the everyday life of Chinesewomen, their relationships with men and theirplace in society, and in particular explores theirexperience of motherhood.Memory / premiering at theBiennaleMy memories are related to my body. Throughoutour teenage and youthful years (1960s-70s), we lived and grew up in a communalenvironment – we were all expected to studyand dine together; and everybody had to goto bed and get up at the same time. Living incommunes that recognised no individuality, wegot anxious once we discovered in ourselvesanything “private” – the body itself was thusa source of anxiety or even guilt. Our memoriesare thus ingrained in our bodies. Thesememories have been the creative source for thisperformance since it was first conceived.How can the past shape the future?My strongest memory of growing up in the 1960s andearly 1970s – the period of the Cultural Revolution inChina – was that I was a member who belonged tothe collectivity. This has influenced my mind and myposition now, and the future too. Although I have beenstarting to try to think and create my dance works inan independent way, I can’t take myself out of society.Wen HuiExtra info:World premiere1 young people’s matinéeCo-produced by the Lyon Dance Biennalewww.danceinsider.com29