Press Release: Yabin Studio / Eastman GENESIS, UK Premiere, Sadler's Wells 28 & 29 September 2015

[Jan McNulty]

Yabin Studio & Eastman / Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui     
GENESIS生长
UK Premiere
Monday 28 & Tuesday 29 September 2015
Performances at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12 - £38
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

Commissioned by Yabin Studio, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and produced by Yabin Studio and Eastman

Acclaimed contemporary dancer and choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and leading Chinese dance artist Yabin Wang bring the UK premiere of their new work, GENESIS 生长 to Sadler’s Wells on 28 & 29 September 2015.

 

The first dance work to have been commissioned from a European choreographer by a dance artist working in mainland China, GENESIS生长 had its World Premiere at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in 2013, and has since toured throughout Europe. Set to live music with roots in Africa, India, Japan, China and Poland, GENESIS生长 is a show about origin. We are born and then we die, and in the meantime we undergo constant testing and increasing estrangement from the natural world.

 

The production translates philosophical ideas about life, the pressures imposed on us by society to perform and conform, into beautiful sequences of movement in which east and west, life and death, come together.

 

GENESIS生长 marks the first London appearance of Yabin Wang. She will dance alongside six other dancers, three from Eastman and three from Yabin Studio, her company. It features an electronic score by composer Olga Wojciechowska, set designs by Liu Kedong and costume design by Li Quing.  

 

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is a Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist. He has created more than 20 works including zero degrees, Babel Sutra and m¡longa and is acknowledged as one of Europe’s most exciting choreographers. He continues to work with a variety of theatres, opera houses and ballet companies from around the world including Dutch National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, GöteborgsOperan Danskompani, Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon in Tokyo and Stuttgart Ballet.

 

Cherkaoui received international acclaim for his choreography in Joe Wright’s feature film Anna Karenina (2012). Earlier this year, Cherkaoui was announced as the new Artistic Director of Royal Ballet Flanders from August 2015, a role he will take on alongside his work with Eastman. Larbi is currently working with Benedict Cumberbatch on the movement for Hamlet at Barbican directed by Lyndsey Turner.

 

Yabin Wang founded Yabin Studio in 2009 and has since produced numerous dance performances under the name of Yabin & Her Friends. Yabin Studio produces full-length dance programmes and commissions choreographers from the US, Europe and China to create new work.

 

Trained in classic Chinese dance at the Beijing Dance Academy, Wang choreographed and danced in Zhang Yimou’s internationally renowned feature film House of Flying Daggers (2004). In 2014, Artistic Director of the English National Ballet Tamara Rojo invited Wang to choreograph work for a new triple bill entitled She Said,alongside two other female choreographers Aszure Barton and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. The new work will premiere at Sadler’s Wells in April 2016.

 

Looking forward to her London debut, Yabin Wang said, “I was very proud to take this major step in commissioning work from an acclaimed European choreographer and am delighted to be bringing it to Sadler’s Wells. GENESIS生长  builds on the ethos of Yabin & Her Friends – to bring together the best in the dance world to create world class works.  It’s all about the participation and collaboration by and of Chinese dance artists with dance artists from other parts of the world.”

 

On working with Yabin Wang, Larbi said, “She first mentioned the possibility of working together four years ago, and we have been developing the idea ever since. I always work on several projects in parallel. That gives me the chance to work on a production over a number of years to allow it time to mature...it is thanks to her invitation that GENESIS生长   was created.”

 

A Sadler’s Wells co-production

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is a Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist

The Monument Trust supports co-productions and new commissions at Sadler's Wells

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Listings information

Yabin Studio & Eastman / Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
GENESIS生长
UK Premiere
Monday 28 & Tuesday 29 September 2015
Performances at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12 - £38
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

About Sadler’s Wells
Sadler's Wells is a world leader in contemporary dance, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its international award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour the world. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 appointed world class Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and an Associate Company and nurtures the next generation of talent through hosting the National Youth Dance Company, its Summer University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.

 

Located in Islington in north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells.

Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 9% of its revenue from Arts Council England.

 

About Yabin Dance Studio
Founded by Chinese dancer and choreographer Yabin Wang in 2009 in Beijing, Yabin Dance Studio produces full length dance programmes and commissions new works  from choreographers from the US, Europe and China. It has produced numerous dance performances under the name of Yabin & Her Friends.  

 

About Eastman
Founded in January 2010, Eastman was set up to produce and spread the work of artistic director/choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Cherkaoui’s work provides the audience with a vast array of projects and collaborations; ranging from con-‐‐ temporary dance, theatre, ballet, opera, musical and other forms of performance. His non-‐hierarchical thinking on movement, body language and culture is the basis of his artistical approach. Set in his native harbor city of Antwerp (Belgium), Eastman forms the central point for all of Cherkaoui’s work.

 

Since the foundation in 2010, Cherkaoui created amongst others Babel  (words), Play, Rein, TeZukA, Puz/zle ,4D and GENESIS 生 长 under the wings of Eastman. Eastman also coordinates all the work of Cherkaoui for other organizations. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is associate artist at Sadler’s Wells (London, UK).

 

International partners of Eastman include Sadler’s Wells (London), la Monnaie (Brussels), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Grande Halle de La Villette (Paris), Theaterfestival Boulevard ‘s Hertogenbosch, Festspielhaus Sankt-‐Pölten, Fondazione Musica per Roma.

 

Eastman is resident at deSingel International Art Campus (Antwerp) and is supported by the Flemish authorities and BNP Paribas Foundation.