Legend of Shangri-La 

For further  information: www.thelegendofshangrila.com.au  

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SBS Interview with Yang Liping

Opening Performance of “Experience China”

The Legend of Shangri La—The Chinese Rhythm & Dance Sensation—Featuring Chinese Superstar Yang Liping—Over 5000 Years in the making—The Official Opening of The Year of Chinese Culture in Australia Sydney from 22 June at State Theatre.

From the mountains of Tibet to the plains of Yunnan lies Shangri La - the land that time forgot.  With over 5,000 years of stories in the making, Shangri La is an ancient land where 42 minority groups live in peace and harmony.  This beautiful, but remote and largely mountainous highland, is the south western most region of China, bordering Vietnam, Laos, Burma and Tibet.  Yunnan is a beautiful land of wondrous sights and sounds with a rich ethnic tapestry.From this diverse and fascinating cultural heritage comes the Chinese Rhythm and Dance Sensation that is The Legend of Shangri La.  Under the direction of Chinese living treasure and superstar Yang Liping, 50 dancers and musicians tell the ancient stories of a culture as old as time.  Hailed as a dance and choreography tour-de-force in her own country, Yang Liping, who will also dance in The Legend of Shangri La, has created an extraordinary performance of traditional song and dance fused with modern choreography.

The Legend of Shangri La is an exquisite visual feast that combines a surreal setting on stage with dynamic lighting, music and a three-dimensional stage design. Simplicity, joy and warmth blend with the excitement and pageantry of instruments featuring huge drums that reflect the original beats and rhythms of their ancient beginnings. In addition, The Legend of Shangri La features a wealth of colourful costumes and 120 unique masks decorated in the styles of the Yunnan minorities.The Legend of Shangri La is presented in a series of segments representing some of the essential elements of nature: The Sun, The Moon, Fire, Homeland, and The Earth, all showcasing dance and music from across the Yunnan province. And to conclude this spectacular event, Yang Liping, will perform her universally acclaimed sensation, Soul of the Peacock.This is a story that takes us back to a world that was only beginning – a world where one could touch the clouds and listen to the mountains where nature and man lived in harmony.The Legend of Shangri La - from a people who believe that “there is never completion to decorating the drum, no finish to the singing and no end to the dancing".

TOUR DETAILS

Tickets on Sale from Monday 18 April, 2011

Bookings - Ticketmaster 1300 139 588 or online www.ticketmaster.com.au www.thelegendofshangrila.com.au

Venue:  State Theatre, 49 Market Street, Sydney

Dates & Times:  Wednesday 22 June 8pm    

                         Thursday 23 June 8pm  

                         Friday 24 June 8pm  

                         Saturday 25 June 8pm    

                         Sunday 26 June 1pm

Prices:   $49 To $139

Bookings:  Ticketmaster 1300 139 588  or online www.ticketmaster.com.au

Premium Packages:  VIP Dinner & Show, and Stay & See Hotel Packages    Showbiz 1300 4 SHOWS (1300 474 697)  or www.showbiz.com.au                                         

For further  information: www.thelegendofshangrila.com.au

Notes on Creating Dynamic Yunnan – In Search of Shangri-la

Yang Liping

My grandmother used to tell me when I was little: dancing is communion with god. The true meaning of it did not dawn on me until many years later. Now whenever I raise my arms to dance, soulful and religious, I can feel them reaching out to limitless space, to the gods who would take my hands and lift my soul from my body, to an ethereal state of sublime serenity.

Like many of the natives of Yunnan, I feel so fortunate to be born there. With so many ethnic groups, so many different music cultures, it is a vast ocean of songs and dances. People who live up there in the mountains believe that heaven and earth can come together as one, and that it is possible for the yin and yang to be in harmony. They would express love through the Peacock Dance, celebrate bumper harvests with the ‘stomping dance’ of dage, and beat drums as copulating calls. These glorious expressions of human nature had the effect of an imprint on me, and images of them have kept my heart a-stir for thirty years, which culminated in a long expedition looking for folk and indigenous material. I travelled almost all over the Yunnan Province, visiting every village and rural region. It lasted more than a year and I covered over 200,000 kilometers. I remember going for 15 days without taking a bath. And once, our vehicle was bogged down in deep snow in Deqin where the overnight temperature could fall to -20°C. If we did not get out before nightfall, I was told, I was in danger of turning into a “frozen peacock”. But even that did not deter me at all, because for me, it was a spiritual journey, one that was profoundly enlightening and enriching. There were moments that I would remember as long as I live, moments when I was moved to tears. One evening, I saw on the slope of a huge mountain far off an ant-like figure. It was a young mother, with a child strapped to her back, digging the earth so late in the afternoon. The sun was behind her, so she was bathed in its golden rays. As I saw her digging the earth – no, the huge mountain – I could not help my tears, for I knew she worked so hard in the hope of reaping a little more food so that her child would not go hungry. Then there was Axiu, a young girl from the Blang ethnic group. She wanted to be cast in my show, but I had to reject her because she was too short. She pleaded desperately, for her biggest ambition in life was to buy a buffalo for her family. Then I learned that the annual per capita income in her village was only ¥150, and a buffalo only cost ¥400. I could not help my tears again, so I let her stay on.

On those field trips, I was totally enchanted by the vast number of folk songs and folk dances that I encountered. But at the same time, I was extremely worried that the so-called modern lifestyle and its rapid commercialisation would lead to the demise of the indigenous music cultures. Many tribal people already preferred jeans to embroidered shoes. When I realised there were only a couple of old drummers left who could play the Divine Drum of the Luchun tribe, I was heartbroken because I knew that those scores of drum dances would disappear with the passing of these last players. Just like ‘save the panda’ operation, I felt the only thing one could do was to take the matter into one’s own hands, and act fast. Since there was no way to seek funding from other sources, I took out my own savings in a bid to preserve this treasured folk heritage. And that was how “Dynamic Yunnan – In Search of Shangri-la” was born.

In staging an ethnic song and dance performance like this, which is imbued with human spirit and ethnic colours, I need to find an unopened door, and the choice of performers was the key. I insisted on recruiting natives from the respective villages. These are simple folks who only dance for love and for life. The joy and elation emanating from them when they dance best illustrate the true spirit of this musical production. I did not have to do very much. All I had to do was to pick what is inside them, and brush off the dust on these precious gems of performers, then their underlying brilliance and colours shone through.

All my ethnic performers are naturally multi-talented: they sing, they dance and they play the drums. Even top professional dancers may find it difficult to match the three-step dance rhythm with four-beat singing that they do with ease; and even maestros in music would be amazed at their vocal range and part-singing skills. Beneath the simple lyrics of their songs are philosophical messages. My regret is that the performance is only a little more than an hour long. It is too short to say what I want to say. What can I share with you within the space of an hour? Should it be the majesty of the mountains, the energy of the earth, the brilliance of the sun, or the iridescence of the moon? Should it be about the bittersweet process, or our perseverance in clinging onto dreams? Nevertheless, I trust that through this portrayal of human wisdom, you can glean an impression of the Yunnan personality. I also hope that this original production of ritualistic song and dance will garner support for my quest to conserve and develop our ethnic culture in a global artistic framework.

Chief Choreographer/ Artistic Director/ Lead Dancer: Yang Liping
Award-winning dancer in the Mainland, Yang Liping, who is also known as the “Peacock Princess” and the “Goddess of Dance”, is a Bai ethnic of Yunnan. She began her dancing career in Xishuangbanna Prefecture Song and Dance Troupe in 1971. She was the lead dancer in the ethnic dance drama, Peacock Princess, which won a Gold Award for Best Performance in Yunnan in 1979. She came into prominence with Spirit of the Peacock, which she choreographed and performed herself, in 1986. This solo work won for her a Class One Award for Originality and the First Prize in Performance at the 2nd All China Dance Competition. She was the star in the dance production of the same name, performed at the closing ceremony of the 11th Asian Games in Beijing in 1990. In 1994, Spirit of the Peacock won the Gold Award at the Dance Classics of the 20th Century. Yang’s trilogy – Dynamic Yunnan, in particular, won five gold awards at the National Lotus Awards in 2004. She has also been on tour to many parts of the world, having given solo dance performances in Singapore, the Philippines, the United States, Canada, and Japan.
She is also the first dancer from the Mainland to visit Taiwan for artistic exchange.

Prologue – The Dawn of Life
I am the wild fire, I am the wind,
I have locked my soul in the drum,
And kept the seeds within me.
With a clap of thunder, plants begin to sprout,
Wake up! Spirit of the Drum, wake up!

Scene One – The Sun
The sun and the moon are forever chasing each another,
From east to west they follow the track.
They have taken the same route since Chaos opened up;
Men and women are together
Since they were born, and till they die -,
They were joined upon the Creation of the Earth.

Drums in Yunnan top the rest of China in terms of variety and the number of myths related to them. In Yunnan, the drum is not only a musical instrument but also a symbol of the womb, a totem for genital worship. Drums may be categorized by material, such as leather, stone, bronze and wood, or by their ethnic origins, known as the Sun Drum, the Mang Drum, the Riba Drum or the Dabei Drum. In making wood drums, the Wa people would make a pair, one male and one female, and they would hold a ritual before cutting down the tree.

Scene Two – The Earth
Heaven is vast, but there is only one;
The earth is vast, but there is only one.
Do not say that flora does not speak,
There is a reason for every living thing on earth.
My ancestors told me,
The Earth came from the flesh and bones of the Creator.
I lay low, close to the earth, and there and then,
I could understand the myths of my ancestors.

Moonlight                                                                             Solo Dance: Yang Liping
Yang Liping believes that women are like moonlight, and can be seen in manifest and impalpable forms. In this dance, she uses an abstract and complex dance idiom to externalize her emotions and to portray the moon in its pure glory.

Song and dance of the ‘Huayao’                                                            Yi people of Shiping
There is a saying among the Yi ethnic group that, “If you have a mouth but cannot sing, you are not really living life as you should; if you have feet but cannot dance, you won’t get a husband no matter how pretty you are.” The song type called ‘haicaiqiang’, or ‘marine green algae singing’, originated from Lake Yilong of Shiping, Yunnan. Young women of the Yi tribe would go fishing on the lake in their boats. As they sing, their voices are like the marine green algae that bobble on the water, and that is what gives the singing the name. Among the four major types of singing – haicai, shanyou, si and wushan – haicai is the most difficult to master. The dance rhythms are unique. The dancers sing in triple time, dance in duple time, and clap in single time. The costumes worn by the dancers are all handmade by themselves.

A Female-dominant World                                                            ‘Huayao’ Dai people of Xinping
Mosuo women are known for being hardworking and full of stamina. These qualities are demonstrated in this dance.

Dage (Stomping Dance)
Dage, or the ‘stomping dance’, is the most common form of courtship by the young men and women of Yunnan’s ethnic tribes. They have a vivid way of describing this social activity, "Come do the dage when the sun rises. Stomp on the meadows and the slopes till they are flat. Brother and sisters, don’t stop till your fleece coats are soaked with sweat. Do the dage till the sun goes down, kick up dust till our feet are no longer seen. Kick up the dust and it will be a panacea of all ills."

Scene Three – The Land We Call Home
The ancient people of Yunnan believed that everything in nature was endowed with spirits and souls. The people therefore have a deep reverence for the natural world around them, worshipping mountain gods, water gods, tree spirits and rock spirits. Virtually every village has a spirit tree and sacred forests. Every minority tribe holds an annual offering to these gods and spirits.

The Tobacco Box Dance                                                                                 Yi Tribe
The Snuff Box dance is performed as a form of courtship by the young men and women of the Nisu tribe, which is a branch of the Yi minority and commonly known as the ‘Three red line Yi’s. They live in Shiping, Jianshui, Ershan and Tonghai areas of Yunnan. The dance is typified by the use of traditional tobacco boxes. The dancers would hold one in each hand, and by flicking them, they create the rhythm of the dance which may be a pas de deux, pas de trois or group dance. The crisp sound of the rhythm coming from flicking the tobacco boxes and the sonorous music coming from the sixian (moon guitar) and dizi (flutes) invite people to dance. The expert dancers among them can invent movements that are full of humour and fun.

Scene Four - Pilgrimage
The Tibetan Buddhists are devout believers, and making a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain is their way of worshipping Nature. The pilgrims often come a long way, spinning their praying wheels. They would lie face down on the ground, as if to measure the road with their bodies, and kiss the earth at every step. Come rain, come shine, in the scorching sun or in the snow, they would continue with their pilgrimage, their hearts aglow until they reach the Holy Mountain, where they would find Heaven of their dreams.

Epilogue – Spirit of the Peacock Starring                                                       Yang Liping
The peacock is a totem of worship for the Dai people, who call it the Sun Bird. It is also a symbol of love. Yang Liping has created a dance idiom that captures the movements and forms of the bird in the most vivid, graceful movements. Spirit of the Peacock expresses her yearning for a sacred and tranquil world. In this Epilogue of Dynamic Yunnan, she has incorporated her solo dance with a group dance to become an exquisite piece of choreography with highly original formations and sound and lighting effects. The result is an uplifting, soul-stirring dance that evokes peace and harmony in life.