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Intoxicating mix of raw energy and infinite rhythm

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-03 08:44

Yang Liping never ceases to amaze. It is an understatement to say she is the reigning queen of dance in China. She is the goddess of dance, a gift from God to the land of Yunnan.

What she touches turns into artistic gold. Of course, you can say she lives in a goldmine, in the first place. The rich ethnic cultures of Yunnan have spawned numerous songs and dances. But her work is unique. She is so close to her sources of inspiration and she has so wonderful a grip over her material that others pale beside her and look like pretenders. You can never watch a crummy TV variety show with ethnic singing and dancing and say bravo after you've seen one of Yang's creations. She combines the soul of Martha Graham with the show of Florenz Ziegfeld.

Sounds from Yunnan is her piece de resistance, the latest instalment of her dance drama-cum-variety show trilogy. Unlike the first one, Impressions of Yunnan or the second one Riddles of Tibet, this one is not just for the eye, but also for the ear. Be prepared for the world's most primitive percussion instruments. They include bowls, bamboos, bells and drums of all sizes. As one of the projected super-titles go, "We make sounds out of every object that can emit sound, and we make sounds out of objects that cannot emit sounds."

In the number "Sun Shower", a group of young women use round bamboo sieves to winnow grains. The sounds of a drizzle and then of a shower are produced by sifting. "Drunken Drums", the number that brings the performance to a rousing crescendo, reminds one of drunken fist, the kungfu move popularized by Jackie Chan. Yet, it is an eye-openingly innovative piece, with a great variety of rhythms and acting that borders on reliving. Dancers guzzle real wine - I'm not sure it's liquor, but it's real liquid - that overflows to their suntanned chests, and when they fall they don't do it nimbly like most dancers, but like real drunkards. It is the spirit of Dionysius in its full glory.

Speaking of the dancers, unlike "professional" performers who inhabit the parts at best, these young men and women live the parts. They were plucked by Yang Liping from mountains and rice fields. When they dance, it's not part of their job, but part of their lives. They are living out their dreams and joys and frustrations right there on the stage. The raw energy they exude is so infectious you cannot but become part of them.

Yang Liping herself appears in three of the numbers. There is a solo in the middle about a cow with clinking bells, and she opens the show by playing a pregnant woman giving birth, and ends it with a pas de deux with her niece who plays the daughter. Her trademark staccato-like movements are as expressive as ever, but have taken on more complexity in meaning.

Comedy abounds in this percussion-heavy show. "Tigers and Tigresses" are childishly playful. The multi-segmented "Strange Birds" offers plenty of laughter besides imaginative ways to recreate sounds. Xiao Apeng, a male solo singer, impersonates both a proud sparrow and a humble mouse. After the mouse is rejected by the sparrow, he insists that "Next year I'll marry a magpie".

If you're still not clear what kind of show this is, let me put it this way: Sounds from Yunnan is like the creators of Stomp and Blue Man Group were born in Yunnan and had the astounding lithe physique of Yang Liping.

Yunnan always claims to have the most color in China. Now we know it also has the widest spectrum of sounds.

Sounds from Yunnan plays at Beijing's Poly Theater through Sunday and will continue its national tour. Impressions of Yunnan, without Yang Liping on stage, plays nightly in Kunming.