NĂĽwa is based on Chinese mythology. The story consists of five key words: birth, death, rebirth, destruction and reconstruction. Using elements from Tai Chi, improvisation and a sense of weight and touch in a choreographic frame, the dancers transfer the viewers to an imaginary world through physical action.
Live piano accompanies the piece, with the pianist taking part in the improvisation, interpreting the sound of the Nüwa story. The sound creates characters, depicting keywords in the structure and specifying the quality of sound from the stage, which in turn changes the observer’s perspective.
PRESS REVIEWS
"No star has been rising to the dancer’s sky at the opening night of the Heilbronn Dance Festival in the Main Hall. Even the Grand Dame of the African Dance, Germaine Acogny, a solitaire of the black continent, does not display any appeal beyond herself in Komoedienhaus. The star of the festival “Tanz! Heilbronn” is rising in the Kammerspiele and its name is Shang-Chi Sun...
Shang-Chi Sun is a comet, who just started to mesmerise the dance universe."
leonore welzin, Tanznetz, 30 Mai, 2011
„It’s a fluid, psychological, nervous/tense and technically perfect dance that is proposed. [...] More than a simple performance it’s the experience of a intense feeling not only short but also indescribable.“
Sébastien COTTE, Rue du Théâtre, 25th July 2009
„And Sun with his choreography presents with intelligence and subtlety the different facets of this goddess. An elastic, aeronautical gesture contrastive to the game played on the ground [...] This creation visually gorgeous offers to the spectator a string of strong emotions, the beauty of the performance transcends the words that come naturally to close the performance, discovery of the world and of the other.“
Diane Vandermolina, La Revue Marseillaise du Théâtre, 19th July 2009
“Très conceptuelle, la chorégraphie semble plus devoir à la danse européenne qu’à une gestuelle exotique... Nul dépaysement, donc, mais demeure, très fort, le plaisir de la danse.”
Danièle Carraz, La Provence, 13th July 2009
“L’interprétation des deux danseurs représentant Nüwa est fascinante parce que, dans la vision des corps désarticulés ou dans la souplesse des déliés, chaque geste est d’une précision extrême. Cultures diverses, propices à l’évocation de la déesse. Beauté née du divers. Le souffle de Nüwa est passé.”
Fatima Miloudi, Les Trois Coups, 16th july 2009
Credits
Choreography Shang-Chi Sun
Dance Nefeli Skramea, Shang-Chi Sun
Music/ Sound Design Julien Guillamat
Live Piano Improvisation Andreas Kern
Light Design Lutz Deppe
Dramaturgy Shang-Chi Sun
Duration 50 minutes
Pictures
Video
Nüwa trailer, Dock 11, Berlin 2009