Jin Xing – The Closest – The Furthest

Review of the performance at the Place Dance Theatre, London, October 2007.
90 second extract on the web at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkaHcnGXf4

The performance begins in complete darkness. The steady pulse of a heartbeat-like sound fades in. The first thing that we see on the dimly lit stage is the GuQin player Zhang Xuan. In an atmosphere of hushed reverence she proceeds to light incense burners, the start of a purification ritual. Next she washes her hands and then produces a cloth from inside her voluminous sleeves. This is used to wipe the full length of the strings of the zither instrument, generating an audible rasping sound.

Jin Xing now enters from downstage right, concealed ghost-like under a shawl draped from head to foot. This dramatic effect is enhanced by illumination from lights at the side of the stage. Very slowly she crosses the stage diagonally, arriving finally at the side of Zhang Xuan. In a soft voice Jin delivers a short explanation of the GuQin to the audience. This covers the imperial and divine origin of the instrument as well as the symbolism and numerology of its design.

Distant, then louder, the sound of drums grow ominously. JinXing turns her head in surprise, and then curls up lying on the stage looking tired and melancholy. The drape of red cloth is seen to lie diagonally across the centre and left of the stage. In the darkness this is pulled downstage left towards a chink of bright light. JX, seemingly overcome by some unknown magnetism is also drawn inexorably to crawl with the moving cloth, as if against her will towards this distant, intense almost blinding light source. Is this the burning, all consuming intensity of modernization, a crack in the world or an occluded sun?

All is now darkness. We begin to hear urban city sounds of traffic moving. JX appears walking and running back and forth across the back of the stage. She is hurried and anxious, dodging unseen commuters and apologizing for near collisions. The lighting now marks out a 3 x 3 division of the stage forming 9 rectangles. Using a particular square zone for each, JX now executes in sequence a variety of autobiographical dance styles including ballet, modern, abstract, global fusion, disco (accompanied by a 4 by 4 club dance beat) and acrobatics including cartwheels. Zhang Xuan’s qin accompanies some of these including an improvisation along with the disco beat.

The ninth section symbolizes a return to roots and tradition as JX returns to sit alongside Zhang Xuan to continue his account of the lore of the guqin. Upon reaching his explanation of the playing style of harmonics that represents the sky, she enters a lively, very feminine dance utilizing the twirling of the red cloth around her head before finally draping it across the stage in conclusion.

Overall the piece was structured by subtle shifts in register. The initial mood of hushed contemplation and reverence for tradition, to poking fun at Chineseness, to melancholy nostalgia.
The use of witty touches of repartee, often in Mandarin are deftly deployed the lighten the mood. In with particular in jokes about the Chinese “they try to link everything together with numbers and numerology and a mimed joke about the manner of traffic police. She also comments on polite English reviews describing her work as “interesting”. While dancing in the spotlight she addresses the lighting technician: “I have to be up here”, as if still in rehersal
Such theatrical devices of dialogue work well to provide continuity and shift between modes of information, performance and entertainment in a seamless multifaceted continuity.

The autobiographical tour through a catalogue of dance styles provides a vehicle to show the postmodern, globalized and multicultural nature of the world today, as well as offering showcase to demonstrate the JX’s range of experiences in these worlds and her versatile repertoire of dance techniques.