minorities OCTOBER 17 – 27
Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre CONCEPT AND CHOREOGRAPHY
YANG ZHEN 杨朕 MUSIC AND PHOTOGRAPHY
QI RAY 齐蕊 YANG ZHEN 杨朕 DANCERS
LOU HIO MEI 卢晓薇 (MACAO) MA XIAO LING 马晓 玲 (CHINESE KOREAN) AODONGGAOWA 敖东高娃 (MONGOLIAN) GAN LUYANGZI 甘露 杨子 (TIBETAN) GUZHANUER YUSUFU 古扎努尔玉素甫 (UYGHUR) SINGER
HUANG PING 黄萍 TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
LIU HENGZHI 刘恒 志 ANIMATIONS AND VIDEO
ZHANG YONGJI 张永基 TOUR MANAGER
JINGXIAN LI 李静贤 AGENT
MENNO PLUKKER 门诺普鲁克 MINORITIES was co-produced by the Dance2017 Festival in Munich, Germany and by the Taipei Arts Festival 2017. Red Virgo is represented by Menno Plukker Theatre Agency, Inc.
PRESENTS SEASON SPONSOR
A RED VIRGO PRODUCTION FROM BEIJING PRESENTED BY CANADIAN STAGE
Minorities is the third installment of the Revolution Game Trilogy by choreographer Yang Zhen from Beijing, China. The first, Just Go Forward, was created in 2014 and dealt with the situation of women in contemporary Chinese society when the “One-Child Policy” was ended, allowing women to have two children. The second, created in 2015, was In the Field of Hope, which focused on the hopes and ambitions of young people living in Mainland China. In Minorities, Yang highlights the social circumstances of a new generation of ethnic minorities in China. With an all-female cast featuring dancers and performers from the Tibetan region, Inner Mongolia, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and Macao, as well as a Korean-Chinese dancer and an opera singer from Hunan Province, Yang explores the constant conflict between social prejudice and individual consciousness – how one can express oneself and relate to the world in which they live – and examines how minority identities in China fit, or don’t fit, in the narrative of a harmonious One China. Combining folk and contemporary dance, theatre, animation, a heart-pounding rock score interspersed with folkloric music, documentary material from Yang’s extensive travel experiences, and the performer’s memories, Minorities is an atmospheric yet playful work of theatre. In May 2019, Delta, a new theatre/dance piece by Yang Zhen premiered in Munich at the DANCE2019 Festival. Delta is a reflection on the Pearl River Delta and the three cities Guangzhou, Macao and Hong Kong. In September 2019, Yang Zhen premiered Destination in Germany. A dance piece about gender and the different perspectives from the Eastern and Western world, Destination features 4 dancers, including Yang Zhen.
THIS PRODUCTION RUNS APPROXIMATELY 75 MINUTES WITH NO INTERMISSION