Genesis takes dance to the roots

Wang Yabin's latest production Genesis is inspired by the movement of a tree growing. Provided to China Daily

With more than a dozen long branches on her back, pioneering Chinese dancer Wang Yabin bends over and moves slowly and gently in the practice room.

It's not performance art, but a scene in her latest co-production Genesis with famous Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, who scripted the dance for the Hollywood version of Anna Karenina in 2012.

"It's an integration of two cultures, and new ideas emerge out of it. Chinese audiences will find some parts familiar, while some parts are strange," Wang says.

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The performance uses "the origin of creation and formation" as its theme, with the metaphor of a tree growing. The root represents the past and the branches are the future. But these branches on her back are just experimental props and won't be on stage.

"It's important for dancers to feel the wood. When I take the branches away, I ask them to move like the wood, they can do it because they have felt it," says Cherkaoui, director of the production.

Cherkaoui and Wang have been friends for several years, and their cooperation started in October 2012. It took them more than 100 days to create Genesis, working in both China and Belgium.

Wang says they experimented with different materials in the studios. To find a new way to move, dancers need to touch and feel the things first, and get their essence.

"It's very challenging for dancers to try to move in such an organic way. We try to go back to elemental energies, such as dancing like fire or water," Cherkaoui says.

"Some musicians may be inspired by the sounds of nature. We're inspired by how nature works and how we're still in a society that moves like nature," he says.

According to him, audiences will see how nature and society are connected, in both beauty and cruelty. Sometimes they may recognize this as how they live their lives every day.