The best dance and stage shows hitting Shanghai this season
Photograph: Duan Ni (Tao Dance Theatre)
Shanghai's theatre scene is springing to life this season with a host of incoming shows from around the globe. The last few months of 2019 bring a glut of excellent stage performances including an exchange between two of the region's leading modern dance groups, a widely acclaimed theatre piece out of Iran that follows a couple's experience inside of a refugee camp and a ground-breaking tap show out of the UK. Here are our top picks.
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Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
Photograph: Cheung Chi-wai
Jaap van Zweden leads the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in a diverse programme of Wagner’s 'Prelude' to Tristan and Isolde, Chan Kai-young’s Spiralling Dream, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9 and the gorgeous, jazzy Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, played here by Young Steinway Artist Rachel Cheung.
📍Shanghai Oriental Art Centre Concert Hall, 425 Dingxiang Lu, near Century Avenue. Thu 14 Nov. 7.30-9.30pm. 80RMB-580RMB.
The Silent House
Photograph: courtesy 247tickets
Iran’s Saye Theatre presents its widely acclaimed physical theatre piece about a seemingly normal couple who are disintegrating before our eyes. Through their slow, deliberate, repetitive movements (and minimal dialogue), we realise that they are not home, but in a refugee camp and that their routines are not habits, but desperate attempts to hold on to sanity, and to each other. A widely acclaimed work shown at Avignon, Adelaide, Edinburgh and other international festivals.
📍Shanghai Grand Theatre, 300 Renmin Da Dao, near Huangpi Bei Lu. Fri 15-Sun 17 Nov. Time and price tba.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Tao Dance Theatre: EXCHANGE
Photograph: Duan Ni
Details are vague on this 'exchange' but any combination of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and the Tao Dance Theatre is an idea whose time has come. Cloud Gate represents the old-but-still-innovating guard with powerful pieces steeped in cultural trappings, while Tao’s minimalism and body intensity just might represent the future of Asian dance. Regardless, it will be thrilling to watch.
📍Shanghai Oriental Art Centre Opera Hall, 425 Dingxiang Lu, near Century Avenue. Thu 7-Sun 10 Nov. 7.15-9.15pm (Thu-Sat); 2-4pm (Sat-Sun). 80RMB-880RMB.
Tiger and Tiger Tale
Photograph: courtesy 247tickets
Scotland’s Barrowland Ballet presents two of its Tiger trilogy, all of which deal with a dysfunctional family whose lives are reunited and reinvigorated by the arrival of a tiger. Tiger is for ages seven and up and is on Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 November, while Tiger Tale, for ages 14 and over, is on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November. But by all accounts, these shows are sheer entertainment for the whole family.
📍Shanghai Grand Theatre, 300 Renmin Da Dao, near Huangpi Bei Lu. Times vary. 100RMB-280RMB.
Oscillate
Photograph: courtesy 247tickets
From UK company Old Kent and choreographers Avalon Rathgeb and Dre Torres comes some ground-breaking tap. Oscillate uses innovations in movement, light and sound to chronicle human interaction, and has garnered great reviews and toured top international festivals, including London Tap Dance Intensive and Edinburgh Fringe. A genre many assumed would die out reinvents itself.
📍Shanghai Grand Theatre, 300 Renmin Da Dao, near Huangpi Bei Lu. Wed 6-Sun 10 Nov. 7.30-8.30pm (Wed-Sat); 2.30-3.30pm (Sun). 80RMB-380RMB.
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