Standing Before Darkness: Sang Jijia Opens Beijing's 3rd Modern Dance Festival

Standing Before Darkness is a world premier by Tibetan Choreographer, Sang Jijia. It's also the opening performance for the 3rd Annual Beijing Modern Dance Festival, organized by BeijingDance/LDTX in collaboration with the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

With his uniquely Tibetan looks and muscular form, Sang Jijia’s female fans may be forgiven for not just having their eyes on his dancing skills. Unfortunately, these days Sang seems more interested in being a choreographer than dancing on stage himself. Growing up on pastureland in Ganyu province, Sang is the first Tibetan modern dancer. After winning many national and international dance awards, he was chosen to study choreography under William Forsythe in Germany. He stayed with the Ballet Frankfurt and the Forsythe Company as assistant choreographer and dancer from 2002 until 2006. If he did not tell the story himself, it would be hard for his fans to imagine that this successful modern dancer was reduced to tears during his first ballet class when he was 12.

Standing Before Darkness, is Sang's second work for LDTX. Presented by 13 dancers, it explores people’s intricate relationship with society. “I created a lot of pas de deux in this work. It is fun for audiences is to guess what the relationship is between dancers,” said Sang with a witty smile, “it could be love, it could be friendship, and it also could be the relationship between a sister and a brother.”

Sang creates pictures to illustrate his ideas (see image below). He explains, “I like to paint. Painting is another way for me to explore the possibilities of body language and its influence on viewers. Through this work, I try to describe the situation of someone who thinks himself a very powerful person, who always controls relationships, but the reality is he is under control or sometimes the roles exchange between two people in an interaction."

The dance is accompanied by electronic live music by Hong Kong Musician, Dickson Lee, who took part in the dance rehearsals before composing his score. Sang likes to use live music in his work as he can adjust the tempo and speed on the spot to stimulate dancers’ emotions or lead dancers’ movements.

Sang's Tibetan background doesn’t exert much influence on his work, which is avant-garde and mixes different styles. “For a long time, I was really afraid to be called a Tibetan dancer,” said Sang. “I would like people think I am just a person - Sang Jijia. I am afraid to be categorized as a certain type of choreographer. I understand it is the acknowledgment from critics and audiences, however, I feel it would limit the development of my choreography in future.”

Besides Sang’s new work, audiences will be able to enjoy various styles of dance during the 3rd Annual Beijing Modern Dance Festival. Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company from Israel presents Rushes and More, a surreal and tragic comedy. French troupe Système Castafiore, famous for combining dance, sophisticated images and sound installations, presents Manuel of Marvels, a fantasy exploring the 31 functions repeated in fairy tales of all nations. Guangdong Modern Dance Company and City Contemporary Dance Company from Hong Kong will also be present with recent works.

Standing Before Darkness runs from May 6-7 and The 3rd Annual Beijing Modern Dance Festival runs from May 6-16 at National Centre for Performing Arts (6655 0000). Details at www.beijingldtx.com. RMB 80-500. Tickets at 6405 4842.