Download Annexes - National Arts Council

ANNEX 1
REPORT ON GIVING BIRTH
Synopsis
Work on Report on Giving Birth began in 1995 – starting from some interviews
conducted with women of ages ranging from 25 to nearly 90 years old, who had
experienced giving birth. The careers of the women interviewed were diverse – an editor,
an author, a fitness coach, a midwife and a homemaker.
This performance grew into a chronicle or report on “birth” as the performers rehearsed
the piece and brought their own personal experiences into the work. This work essentially
searches for answers to the questions: What was it like to be inside of our mothers’
bodies? How do we remember it, and how has this experience continued as we grew up?
The work is made up of different sections including Memories of the Mother’s Body, The
Story of Birth and Love and Journeys. Interviews with the performers’ own mothers are
incorporated into the performance.
The performance begins with four women sitting around a table chatting and eating
melon seeds, then a female performer starts to dance on a table that has a television set
installed in it, whilst another female performer crawls forward.
Performer Feng Dehua weaves the story of herself and her own son through the whole
performance, her narrative is executed with her body movements – at times it seems to
come from very distant memories, at times she seems to be speaking to a listener.
The on-stage identities of the other four female performers Wen Hui, Wang Yanan,
Wang Mei and He Zhumei are an amalgamation of their real selves and acted parts; they
emphasise on movements, interspersed with brief narratives. The male performers Zheng
Fuming and Wu Wenguang play the role of the watchful eyes of the male society.
ANNEX 2
REPORT ON GIVING BIRTH
Wen Hui
Founder/Choreographer
Wen Hui was born in 1960 in Yunnan, China. She has been a professional choreographer
with The Oriental Song And Dance Ensemble of China since 1989. She began her
professional study of traditional dance techniques in Yunnan Art School from 1974 to
1980, and studied at the department of choreography of the Beijing Dance Academy from
1985 to 1989.
She studied modern dance technique at the Limon Institute, Erick Hawkins School of
Dance, and the Trisha Brown Company Workshop in New York from June to October
1994. In 1997, she received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council to research and study
dance for 10 months in New York.
Wen Hui set up The Living Dance Studio in Beijing in 1994 and began to choreograph
and perform modern dance. Besides Report on Giving Birth, Wen Hui's work with The
Living Dance Studio includes Scene: Skirt, Video (1998), performed in Los Angeles,
South Korea, Manila and Guangzhou, China; Dining with 1997 (1996), performed in
London; Toilet/Living Together (1995) performed in Guangzhou, China, London, Hong
Kong, New York and Lisbon; Breath with Earth (1996), performed in Jiaojiehe Village,
Beijing; and 100 Verbs (1994), performed in Washington DC, New York, Beijing and
London.
Wen Hui has always been open to change in each performance. She also continues to
collaborate with artists outside of The Living Dance Studio.
Wu Wenguang
Founder/Producer/Video Producer
Wu Wenguang was born in October 1956 in Yunnan, China. He is the founder and
producer of The Living Dance Studio. He studied Literature at Yunnan University and
graduated in 1982. Wu then taught at a junior high school for three years, and joined
Kunming Television and China Centre television in 1985 as a journalist. He left the
television station in 1989 to become an independent documentary filmmaker and
freelance writer. Since 1994, Wu has cooperated with experimental theatre and dance
groups in China as a playwright, actor and producer.
Feng Dehua
Playwright/Performer
Feng Dehua graduated from the Beijing Broadcast Academy in 1983, and since then she
has worked as a journalist and writer. Her performances with The Living Dance Studio
include Report on Giving Birth (1999) and Dancing with Farmer Workers (2001).
Wang Mei
Dancer
Wang Mei graduated from Beijing Dance Academy in 1995. Her performances with The
Living Dance Studio include Report on Giving Birth (1999) and Dancing with Farmer
Workers (2001).
Wang Yanan
Dancer
Wang Yanan graduated from Beijing Dance Academy in 1995. Her performances with
The Living Dance Studio include Report on Giving Birth (1999) and Dancing with
Farmer Workers (2001).
He Zhumei
Dancer
He Zhumei graduated from Beijing Dance Academy in 1995, and had performed Report
on Giving Birth (1999) with The Living Dance Studio.
Zheng Fuming
Dancer
Zheng Fuming attended Beijing Dance School and later joined the Orient Music and
Dance Company in 1982. He became an independent dancer in 1996, and his
performances with The Living Dance Studio include Report on Giving Birth (1999) and
Dancing with Farmer Workers (2001).
Nakayama Nami
Lighting Designer
Nakayama Nami studied at the Bungakuza Training Institute Theatre in Tokyo and
University of Wisconsin in the United States. She has been working as a professional
lighting designer in Japan and abroad since 1993 and has worked on all of Living Dance
Studio’s performances since 1997.
Wen Bing
Musician/Composer
Wen Bing is a freelance musician and composer. He has been working with The Living
Dance Studio since 1994. His portfolio of works includes music composition for the play
The Fish-man, dance productions Abacus and The Red Chair Corner and The Green Nose
for Children Art and Theatre of Beijing.
ANNEX 3
REPORT ON GIVING BIRTH
Credit List
Director/Choreographer
Wen Hui
Producer/Video Producer
Wu Wenguang
Scenario & Structure Designer
Feng Dehua, Wu Wenguang
Stage Designer
Song Dong, Yin Xiuzhen
Lighting Designer
Nami Nakayama
Music & Sound Designer
Wen Bin
Voiceover
Feng Dehua, Wang Mei, Wang Yanan, Wen
Hui
Interviewer/Sound Recordist
Wen Hui
Performers
Feng Dehua, Wang Mei, Wang Yanan,
Zheng Fuming, He Zhumei, Wen Hui, Wu
Wenguang
Technician
Su Ming
Video technician
Mao Ran
Cast in video and sound recordings
Lao Xiujuan (Wen Hui’s mother)
Wang Qinzhi (Wang Yanan’s mother)
Li Peiying (Wu Wenguang’s mother)
Gui Ying (Midwife at Yunnan Province No.
1 People’s Hospital)
The premiere of Report on Giving Birth (2002) was sponsored by the Prince Claus Fund
(Netherlands).
ANNEX 4
REPORT ON GIVING BIRTH
The Living Dance Studio
The Living Dance Studio, co-founded in 1994 by choreographer/director Wen Hui and
filmmaker Wu Wenguang, is China's first independent dance and theatre company. The
Living Dance Studio operates entirely outside of China's state sponsored arts and
entertainment systems. The company's work is developed in cooperation with a group of
artists who are dedicated to modern performing arts and who use these artistic methods to
express their perspectives on daily life in contemporary China. Some of the artists are
freelancers while others work in state-owned troupes, but for the purposes of free
expression and artistic experiments, they devote themselves to the activities of The
Living Dance Studio.
Choreographer and director Wen Hui began to choreograph in 1989 for the Oriental Song
and Dance Ensemble of China, a state dance company. Through several international
residencies and fellowships she was introduced to modern dance and performance. From
there, she began developing contemporary performance pieces independently and with
Wu Wenguang as part of The Living Dance Studio.
Wu Wenguang is a filmmaker whose first film Bumming in Beijing (1988) focused on the
lives of a group of artists living in Beijing without residency permits, and is considered
China's first independent documentary film. Bumming in Beijing and Wu's subsequent
documentaries have been screened at film festivals worldwide.
Working together at The Living Dance Studio, the two artists have created important
projects documenting everyday life in China, with a particular focus on women's issues,
such as Toilet/Living Together (1995), which was performed internationally at the
Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the Asia Society
in New York, and Culturgest in Lisbon. Report on Giving Birth (1999) also toured
internationally to the Centre National de la Danse, Paris, International Theatre and Dance
Festival, Liege, a state in Belgium, Culturgest, Lisbon, as well as in the Hague
Amsterdam.