HUA MULAN
Featuring Sydney Dance Company and Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble
2005 is the 20th Anniversary of Sydney Dance Company’s first visit to China – the first Western contemporary dance company to be invited.
Sydney Dance Company is proud to announce an historic creative collaboration with the Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble that will see the creation of a full-length dance work on the legend of Hua Mulan. Interpreted variously by many storytellers in China over the past 1500 years, all versions trace back to the original poem from around 500AD wherein a young woman disguises herself as a man to serve in the army in her father’s place where she became a triumphant warrior undetected for many years.
Graeme Murphy’s production of Hua Mulan, will premiere at the 2005 Shanghai International Arts Festival, bringing together the artists of Shanghai Song and Dance Ensemble with Sydney Dance Company and the musicians of Synergy Percussion, in an ensemble totalling 65 performers.
Hua Mulan is being produced by Shanghai City Dance Company Ltd, a leader in dance events in mainland China, whose credits include the recent world-wide stage success of Farewell my Concubine.
Shanghai City Dance Company Ltd. initially approached Graeme Murphy to create choreography for Hua Mulan but, in the spirit of cross-cultural unity, Graeme Murphy proposed a collaboration thus making Hua Mulan a unique and historic event. As a result, Sydney Dance Company not only brings its choreographer and dancers to the project but also the skills of the production arm of the organisation. SDC is now working closely with Shanghai City Dance Company Ltd to realise this ambitious project which features Australia’s Peter England – Set Design, John Rayment – Lighting Design and renowned Chinese Costume Designer Song Li.
The Musical Director for Hua Mulan is Australian composer Michael Askill of Synergy Percussion, a long term composer for Sydney Dance Company (Synergy with Synergy, Free Radicals, Salome and Air and other invisible forces). Askill’s multi-dimensional score for Hua Mulan incorporates live performance by Synergy Percussion and Chinese musicians and the music of Qigang Chen.
