Tapestry in China
Opening ceremonies: Tapestry Dance Company's performace at the InternationalArts Festival
Currently on a month-long tour in China, Tapestry Dance Company recently performed at the International Arts Festival. Founder and Artistic Director Acia Gray has provided CultureMap with another exclusive report from the trip, detailing the company's recent opening ceremonies performance and the overall experience of performing in China's largest performance event.
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The Shanghai Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) has become the largest and most fruitful international performance event in China. After twelve years of successful management, it has become the shortcut for many domestic and foreign performing groups and artists to enter the Chinese performing market. With participation of directors, managers, artists and performers from China and abroad, the event covers a total of over 100 countries and regions,
Tapestry Dance Company was honored to perform The Souls of Our Feet in the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Performing Arts Festival on October 18. It seems we were a big success with members of the audience including agents, promoters and other artists from around the world. We also attracted mobs of journalists, delegates and the director of the festival itself (his visit included an impressive array of cameras catching our bright eyes and sweaty brows post-tap jam).
When not being pulled to perform for the journalists, we were also blessed with being able to see some of the other world-class performers: lots of traditional Chinese opera and dance, an incredible Columbian Flamenco trio, beautiful and synchronized traditional instrument quartets and trios, a steel drum master from Trinidad and Tobago (which Travis and I had the pleasure of dancing to), among others. Other events included violinist Itzhak Perlman, Bejart Ballet Lausanne and the Peking Opera.
I am now working side by side with our Chinese producers to wrap up the interest and deals created yesterday. Thanks to our exposure at the festival, we’re now working on the following future engagements: A 20-theatre tour starting in Beijing with the Joy-Garden Culture Development Company, the China International Performing Arts Festival in Guangzhou, tours through two Shanghai promotional agents and a wonderful connection made with The Neemrana Music Foundation for a cultural collaboration in East New Delhi.
What's new to those of us who have logged many hours in booking conferences in the States is that the letters of intent are actually signed on the spot at this gathering – a stage is actually set for a ceremonial signing, right there on the spot.
Let's see where "the Chinese Way" takes us this time...