Dancers Chang Hongji and He Junbo demonstrate how actors avoid getting injured during fight scenes at a post-show interaction in London on Sunday local time. Zhang Yu
In response to overwhelming audience enthusiasm, the creative minds and main actors of Shenzhen dance drama "Wing Chun" organized an engaging post-performance talk following the show's fourth London performance Sunday afternoon local time.
Carolyn Choa, a Hong Kong-born British dancer and choreographer, and Farooq Chaudhry, an esteemed dance producer, graced the event as special guests.
Kicking off the discussion, Choa lauded the universal appeal of the show's dance vocabulary by quoting a Chinese poem. "It says that dance is beyond language and therefore transcultural as we witnessed today. It speaks to everyone with any language of any country," Choa said.
A luminary in London's dance scene, Chaudhry also shared his perspective. "I've been coming to this theater since 1977. This is probably the third time that I've been here with a very strong Chinese audience. So I'm so happy for that personally," he said.
Chaudhry also commended "Wing Chun" for its synergistic blend of creativity, narrative, lighting, scenic design, music, performance, and costume, among other elements.
He particularly highlighted the elegant integration of dance and martial arts in "Wing Chun," noting, "The incredible ability of the choreography is to merge that into something that's fluid and dance-like. So they made the martial arts exquisitely beautiful, and the arts part became more important than the martial arts."
The free Q&A portion of the event saw a lively exchange, with audience members posing questions with keen interest. One attendee inquired about the greatest challenge faced during the creation.
The drama's choreographers Han Zhen and Zhou Liya provided a thoughtful response, detailing that the most significant hurdle was the fusion of dance and martial arts. To achieve this, they sought out martial arts inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and had the cast train for an entire year.
Another audience member, a dance student, sought advice from the show's dramatist Feng Shuangbai on crafting dance screenplays. Feng emphasized the importance of visual storytelling, saying, "When I'm developing a script, I often visualize scenes of dance and music, which are crucial to the creative process."