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A performance, four movements, and four soundscapes Accelerating inquiries, watching the performance up close, and awareness recovering

The memory and geographical imagine of a nomadic lifestyle 
A multi-cultural individual constantly moving around the world

A female creator who obtains authentic energy from exploring the cultural origin, the way to learn the unknown world and daily life

The simple and exquisite body language, together with paintings and soundscapes, triggers homesickness
Clouds, birds, winds and feet become perspectives, antennas, bones and skins

Dance stands for a ritual

Theater represents a scenery

Facing the winds blowing from all sides of the prairie, breathing, sharing intimacies, and enjoying a rest

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

"When everything calms down, the paintings emerge, and the pressure to act grows, then the choreography emerges. Paths and volumes, repetitions, reconstructions, variations, deformations, getting into the refined time deeply, until they create a memorable texture for instant memory, close to sculpture, which is also considered as a tribute.

 

As a choreographer and artist, NiNi Dongnier triggers her homesickness and thinks about nomadic life, integratingnatural phenomena, animals, human walking, intimate emotions and the universe, abstracted as kinesthetic and visual materials in space. The theater is re-set as a "performance scenery" in which the audiences are invited to slow down the perceptual movement, to meditate again on the dance scene - the ontology of collective ritual, or simply to or simply to rest in the scenery. The performers have various body background, such as postmodern body movements, ballet, Chinese folk dance, especially Mongolian dance.

 

The dance works such as "Cloud", "Silent Flight", "Micro Steps, Highland", and "Sun And Moon Have Rotated To This Infinite Extended Present Moment, The 99 Verbs And Wishes, For You, My Dear" converge into a nomadic space, focusing on the present and recalling the coordination of naturalism, the spirituality of ancient animism, and the future.

 

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

"Performing Scenery"

Unlike watching the frame test stage performance, the audience is invited to enter the interior of the stage space and be in the "performance landscape" composed of dancers, sound fields and materials. If you are alone in the wilderness, you can sense the micro motion and tremor of everything.

 

Deep Integration of Soundscape and Choreography

Music and sound are carefully distributed in different spatial patterns, allowing for the perception of internal relationships such as human action pathways, connections between humans and different species, and internalization of each other.

 

Language Exploration

The dance language of "Silent Flight" is not separated from "tradition" and body memory - the actors' bodies have experienced their own "tradition" and naturally contain traditional dance, especially the language inspired by Mongols dance. However, the body is not trapped in symbols, but strives to make each dynamic faithful to specific moments in life and close to the individual.

 

 

Words From the Director

 

I understand the world and myself on the move, making new connections with different world materials. My body is my home, and when perception is clear, where I live is not the most important thing. A grassland can be an internal grassland. Love is Alchemy.
                                                                                                                         —NiNi Dongnier

 

 

Choreographer/Artist: NiNi Dongnier

 

NiNi Dongnier was born in Inner Mongolia and now lives in New York and Beijing. NiNi Dongnier’s dance work combines choreography, moving images, technology, and painting. She activates embodied perception and memory, tracing an intuitive path. She arranges the various materials to extend the body, exploring the metaphysical thinking, and concrete relationships to the temporal, ecological and technological fields where she is. The dance performance is abstracted out as tactile-kinesthetic or visual forms, generating "performative scenery". The themes such as existence, eros, landscape, migration, ritual, holiness, and ephemerality run through her dance works. Immersed in cross-border nomadic thinking, she adopts a different way of understanding the world and is good at finding connections and the similarities and differences between things.

 

NiNi Dongnier’s works have been invited for movement studies in Church of the Judson, New York,  Robert Wilson Watermill Center and its 30th anniversary celebration, La MaMa Experimental Theater Club | CultureHub, Jonah Bokaer Arts Foundation, New York Live Arts, Mana Contemporary Cultural Center, performance season of Experimental Theater season of China National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), "Lotus Award" for China National Folk Dance, etc. She is an artist in residence at Media Arts Xploration (MAX), La MaMa Experimental Theater | CultureHub etc. She co-founded an interdisciplinary art group NUUM Collective, whose projects are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Google and others.

 

NiNi Dongnier achieved her Bachelor's and Master's degree in Chinese Folk Dance and Ethnography at the Beijing Dance Academy, then studied contemporary dance at Purchase College, State University of New York, and achieved her Master of Arts degree in Choreography and Media Arts at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has taught at the Beijing Dance Academy, Hunter College, City University of New York, and is currently an assistant professor in School of Contemporary Art at Simon Fraser University. She will serve as artist-in-residence and curator of the Movement Lab at Barnard College, Columbia University from 2024.

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Choreographer/Artist: NiNi Dongnier
Performer: Guo Ge, Wang Can, Li Yanqi, Argyle, NiNi Dongnier
Composer：Mauricio Pauli, Qinggeletu, Tong Yixin
Sound Design：Mauricio Pauli, Alex Abamed
Stage Design：NiNi Dongnier, Ni Ke
Lighting Design：Yuan Ye
Clothing Supervisor/Producer：Bing Xiangzhi
Stage Supervisor/Performance Coordinator: Fan Jinshu
Graphic photography：Lane Lang
Mongolian font design：Tigus
Graphic design：Tong Sixuan, Shi Si
Consultant：He Yanmin


Producer：NiNi Dongnier
Co Productions:：FIELF MOTION, Shanghai International Dance Center Theater
Commissioned by：Shanghai International Dance Center Theater
Special Support：Columbia University Barnard College Sports Laboratory, Simon Fraser University School of Contemporary Art, The Watermill Center;   
Venue Support：Beijing Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dancers Association, Beijing New Development Infinite Art Space 
Special Thanks：Youth Dance Troupe of Beijing Dance Academy, Inner Mongolia Ethnic Arts Theater、Feng Jingya, Xin Tana, Zheng

 

 

 

Dance Out of The Box China Contemporary Dance Biennale

Dance Out of The Box China Contemporary Dance Biennale is a regular showcase of contemporary dance works by domestic young choreographers. The event aims to provide a platform for domestic contemporary dance choreographers to display their works and promote the cutting-edge contemporary dance from China to the world. Following the tradition, the theater will officially present the 2023 Dance Out of The Box China Contemporary Dance Biennale from August 18th to 27th.

The event, initiated and hosted by Shanghai International Dance Center Theater, consists of three main sections: dance performances, workshops, and showcases, bringing together domestic young choreographers, inspiring their passion for creation, and exposing Chinese contemporary dance to the global stage. Starting from August 18th, four dance works will meet with the audience, including Shoulder Hug. Dance. Hug Shoulder, Flexitarian, Talking Body, and Silent Flight. Additionally, workshops and outdoor short performances will be open to the public for free.

 

Dance Out of The Box

Dance Out of The Box is an artistic brand specially created by Shanghai International Dance Center Theater, aiming to aspire the creativity of young artists and break conventional boundaries through dance. Under this brand, there are two major festival events: Dance Out of The Box Festival, which introduces cutting-edge international dance works, and Dance Out of The Box China Contemporary Dance Biennale, which focuses on works by domestic young choreographers.

The two events are held alternately every year, with one bringing in international masterpieces and the other showcasing domestic works. Through these events, Shanghai International Dance Center Theater continues to build an artistic platform that encourages innovation and crossover integration, explores diverse spaces for the expression of contemporary dance art and propels artists' creativity and achievements towards new horizons.

 

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