tanzcompagnie-rubato.de

Look at me, I´m Chinese: consumerism, exhaustion, reliability meets the playful young self-confident Chinese. Contradictions, cultural differences, globalisation, the Chinese way?

Jutta Hell and Dieter Baumann have worked as Tanzcompagnie Rubato on and off in China since 1995 and thereby observed the rapid social and cultural changes.

“Look at me, I’m Chinese” was created in collaboration with six outstanding dancer-personalities of the younger generation, who live in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou and are building a career there for themselves as independent artists. The collaborative character of the project is reflected in the name this newly formed group has given itself: Mahjong Dance.

The piece questions the relationship of culture and body, individuality and collective experience. “Community rituals that practiced from an early age on in kindergarten and school, can be recalled by all, are present in the body, in memories. The delight in playful experimentation with individual identity takes place within political slogans such as China harmonized, follow the leader or better city, better life. Accept where you stand in society. Be flexible, stay in the game, look for your chance. Walk, move, run, be swift, fall down and get back up over and over again together.” (Rubato)

Just look at me, my body is here, you can see clearly that I am Chinese, and then you can think more about Chinese culture.