Dongpo: Life in Poems at Opera House at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Dongpo: Life in Poems (2023) By Shen Wei “Shen Wei ’s singular imagination and brilliant stagecraft brings us to strange and wondrous places.” “Powerfully theatrical, stylized and emotionally cool, his productions are fed by both Asian traditions and American experimentation, but they belong to neither camp.” The Washington Post. Program (Dance) International acclaimed choreographer Shen Wei returns to the Kennedy Center with his latest contemporary operatic dance "Dongpo: Life in Poems”. It is produced and performed by the China Oriental Performing Arts Group with live guqin music by Zhao Xiaoxia. The production is based on the poetry and life experiences of the renowned Chinese poet Su Dongpo (1037-1101) who lived in the Song Dynasty, and transforms the comprehension of poetry into self-perception, then externalizes it through body movement and audiovisual contemporary expressions. Mr. Shen Wei is the director, playwright, set/costume designer and visual effects art director of this operatic dance production. The creative team includes the Chinese-French composer Chen Qigang, the music director of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, and Xiao Lihe, lighting designer of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games who graduated from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, studied under lighting designer Prof. Jin Changlie, Jennifer Tipton and Ming Cho Lee. The production is a part of China Arts and Entertainment Group’s Image China cultural exchange initiative, which aims to introduce traditional and contemporary Chinese performing arts to audiences around the world. Since its inception in 2009, Image China has presented works at venues across the globe, including Lincoln Center in New York; The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; and performance venues in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Germany, Italy, and throughout Europe.