Under the Skin

Under the Skin (excerpt)

wen wei dance & beijing modern dance company (canada / china)

Under the Skin is a new full-length collaborative work from Wen Wei Dance and the Beijing Modern Dance Company. A dual investigation into the common ground shared by performers from Canada and China, Under the Skin is a challenging work that examines ideas of cultural and personal identity, from the inside out. Featuring a new score from composer Giorgio Magnanensi, Under the Skin explores how individuality and culture inform each other.

Vancouver based Wen Wei Dance has gained international renown for their distinctive body of work. Returning to China for the first time in twenty years to create dance with performers from both Vancouver and Beijing provided a critical opportunity for choreographer Wen Wei Wang to revisit his own history.

We found ourselves in a place where we were required to look beyond the surface differences…the thing that we discovered through working together was our underlying fundamental humanity…Our language comes from different places, and our personal experiences are different, but Under the Skin we are all the same. (Wen Wei Wang)

[…] La machine humaine infernale semble être remontée à bloc, sur la partition grésillante de Giorgio Magnanensi. L’espace sonore qu’il créé a tout d’un film de science-fiction, quand il ne reprend pas des airs traditionnels chinois. D’une richesse insolite, sa musique exacerbe ce tiraillement entre un environnement au pas de course et le rythme intérieur de chacun, à mi-chemin entre futur en construction et folklore ancestral. […] (Maud Cucchi • Le Droit, June 14, 2010)

Thank you Marco Ruggeri, Silvia Mandolini & Kees Boeke for your beautiful voices (that was in 1996…)