Women of the World is a co-production between the Beijing Modern Dance Company and Anoukvandijk dc from The Netherlands. Ms. Gao Yanjinzi from BMDC and Ms. Anouk van Dijk from anoukvandijk dc each choreographed a work for the stunning dancers of the Beijing Modern Dance Company.

The full-length program, Women of the World, premiered during the Holland Dance Festival in the Hague on November 8, 2007 and successfully toured the Netherlands until December 6, 2007.

And the program will be premiered in China at the Tianqiao Theatre on 5th-7th December. The performance will be accompanied with workshops, after-show talks and other public activities.

The title "Women of the World" finds it source in the two female choreographers who create this double bill: China's Yanjinzi Gao and Holland's Anouk van Dijk. Two women from completely different cultures, with differing expectations, values, traditions, but at the same time two women who are in many ways universal -- strong, resolute, both having built their own dance companies over the last decade and both combining their roles as artists with their roles as mothers.

“Offering”- the work of choreographer Yanjinzi Gao finds it’s artistic source in her Buddhist upbringing and traditional Chinese dance training. In a contemplative, harmonious world her dancers move with a natural flow of energy, yet surprises lurk around every turn, causing the audience to question the meaning of such labels as "tradition," "modern," and "East/West." Her movement vocabulary draws on such sources as Peking Opera, a theater form that combines fierce, powerful movement with song and music, as well as tai qi chuan, a martial art characterized by refined movement that follows the breath and the flow of 'qi'. Ms. Gao is not only a choreographer but also a stunning dancer who can often be seen in her own work. Ms. Gao creates the opening piece for the program Women of the World.

The Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk makes work of a very personal nature. Her choreographic work intriguingly combines virtuoso dance with a strong theatrical concept. With tangible characters in an abstract setting, she creates powerful fairytale worlds in which everyday realities run smoothly into absurd fantasies. The human beings in the pieces are unenviable creatures, who miraculously however, never lose their optimism about a happy ending. For BMDC she creates a work in which the poetry and serenity of Chinese culture confront the chaos and confusion of the contemporary Western world. Anouk van Dijk trains her dancers in the movement system she has developed in her 20-year career as a dancer and choreographer, the Countertechnique – a system which allows for extreme changes of direction and produces spectacularly large movements.

Women of the World makes up a surprising double bill, in which the differences and similarities of East and West both contrast and interact in a most original way.

Women of the World

Act one：Offering(50 min)

Choreographer: Mrs. Gao Yanjinzi(Artistic Director of BMDC)

Performers: Dancers of Beijing Modern Dance Company

Costume Designer：Zhong Jiani, Ah Kuan

Lighting Designer：Huang Zhigao

You stand lost in fog

But I see cloudless days of centuries past

I use ancient eyes

To help you find your way

You don’t understand why the water in your hands

Sparkles like crystal

You’ve forgotten where you stand

Is there in the fog

Is where I cried

By Gao Yanjinzi

—— Intermission——

Act Two：Bliss（35 min） 

Choreographer: Mrs.Anouk van Dijk

(Artistic Director of Anouk van Dijk Modern Dance Company)

Performers: Dancers of Beijing Modern Dance Company

Costume Designer：Ah Kuan,Zhong Jiani

Lighting Designer：Amelia Davies, Anouk van Dijk

Remarks: Tickets for Modern Dance Women of the World are available now!