In order to grow, we must sometimes step out of our normal structures and embrace the richness of life in all its ever-shifting currents and transformations.
Humans need frameworks in order to define their existence, be they tangible (a body, a house or a city wall) or intangible (family, community, beliefs and opinions). eyond the first frame other frames await – the limitations of bodies, the walls of the room, the space between audience and performers. We determine our own frames but they will sometimes begin to confine or even constrict us. How can we discard our frames without losing ourselves? In Frame, Boukje Schweigman, Nunu Kong and Nannan Liu explore this dualism with the help of a set of six independently lit wooden frames and the fluid and playful energy of their own bodies.
Superficially seen you would frame the three performers differently, mostly because they come from such different parts of the world, such different cultures. Though, their souls and their energies seem to match very well! There are matters in our existence that go beyond frames. The performers will travel to the different cultures in order to invite the audiences to look beyond their frames, or at least become more aware about how framing is part of our lives and what it does to us, without judgement. Of course, as artists, they like to work out of the box, search beyond the frames, but they are also aware about the help framing sometimes has to offer. It is a delicate balance between framing and exploring.
The essence of the lit wooden frames is to create focus. What is inside it gets an extra emphasis. They give a good opportunity to play around with you/me and us/them. They will explore the connection between the performers space and the audience space, stretching the boundaries between them. The light in the wooden frames gives even more opportunities to point out the images in the frames or will involve and define the space around them. With the frames the performers create various situations and patterns that mimic or exaggerate examples and expressions taken from life, emphasizing the curious situations our concepts of “framing” put us in. Towards the end of the performance a giant blob/bubble designed by Cocky Eek engulfs the stage, the performers, and perhaps even the audience until all frames are obliterated and all are one. Frame will be easy to relocate, making it flexible for travel to venues in Asia and Europe. The core of the piece is formed by the onstage performances, the frames and the interaction with the audience. One version will be developed for theatres, where light will play an important role, and another will be developed for non-theatre locations, where the framing of site-specific characteristics will also play a role.
Introduction of the organization:
brand nu Dance is a Shanghai-based open project and international contact point dedicated to the support and growth of independent contemporary physical performance and dance from China, producing new vital choreographies, productions and presentations of Chinese artists beyond the underground. Consciously striving since 2007, bnD aims to shift the common perception of contemporary dance in/from China away from preoccupations with "Chineseness" and “national” culture towards honest expression of the human body in a physical language that can be understood by all who cherish imagination and value the small gesture over the epic spectacle. Choreographer Nunu Kong seeks out the common and quirky humanity we all share amongst ourselves and with the world around us, infusing it with a new breadth of curiosity and surreal causality to create an original dance theater in modern China. bnD have shown their work internationally and have also produced locally a series of sharp smaller pieces to shapen their playful and imaginative style.
Latest projects include The Insects Must be Insane inspired by colorful drawings of morphologically disturbed insects and a performance piece with Surasi Kusolwong titled, If I could bring the dead artist to life for a minute, I do!
Schweigman& theatre company is led by Boukje Schweigman. Her starting point is always the physicality and presence of both the performer and the audience with movement, design, light, sound and manipulation of the space all-adding to the experience. Schweigman never uses text, instead choosing to work with the universal languages of the body, the image and spatial and sensory experiences. This makes her work very suitable for performance abroad, and it has already traveled to Egypt, Belarus, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Bolivia and China. Schweigman’s multiple award-winning work has been very well received by press and audiences alike and has variously been described as authentic, poetic and intimate.
With powerful visual and sensual effects they invite the spectator to physically enter a surreal world, erasing the boundaries between audience and performer, and how the audience perceive the experience. Their audience might find themselves seated in white gowns around the stage as if in a witches circle or floating in a lake in a big red ball. Schweigman& brings the audience into a state of mental disorder that opens the senses to Schweigman&’s amazing and sensual world, and to the spectator’s own inner world.
为了成长，有时我们必须跨出自己常规的生活框架，去体验丰富生活的无常和多变。无论是有形框架（身体、房子、城墙），还是无形框架（家庭、社区、信仰和意见），人类需要框架来定义他们的存在。除了第一层框架，还有一些其他的框架存在，如身体的局限、房间的墙、观众和演员之见的空间。我们决定了自己的框架，但有时反而限制、甚至禁锢了自己。我们如何才能放弃自己的框架而不失去自我？Boukje Schweigman、Nunu Kong和刘亚囡作品《Frame》中，借由一系列的六个发光木制框架，用他们流畅而幽默的身体语言，来探讨这样的双重性问题。
表面上来看，你可能会因为这三个演员来自世界上的不同地域和文化，而将他们相互区分，可是他们的灵魂和能量却配合得如此完美。世界上总有一些事情能够超越框架。这些演员们在世界各地巡演，邀请观众来欣赏他们超越了框架界定的表演，或至少让他们没有偏见地来意识到框架在我们生命中的存在和影响。当然，作为艺术家，他们喜欢自由且不受约束地工作，虽然他们也知道到有些框架必须存在，因而总处于一种微妙的平衡关系中。
采用发光的木制框架，是为了创造一个焦点，用以特别强调在框架中的事物，也创造了一种情境，区分了我／你、我们／他们的疆界。框架的存在，探索了演员区域和观众区域之间的关系，延伸了他们之间的边界。木制框架中的灯光突出了框中画面，也界定了他们周围的空间。演员通过框架，以模仿、夸张的形式创造了许多源自生活的场景和片段，强调了那些因“框架”概念而置身其中的古怪场景。演出结尾部分，由Cocky Eek设计的巨型气泡吞噬了舞台、演员、甚至观众，直至所有的框架都被消灭干净，变成一个框架。《框架》适于迁移，使其能在亚洲和欧洲的不同场地进行表演。舞台上的演出、框架以及与观众之间的互动，构成了整部作品的核心。对于剧场演出的版本，灯光将起到至关重要的作用；而对于非剧场的演出，实际场地的框架特点也将扮演重要角色。
Brand nu Dance
“brand nu Dance不乱扭独立制作”是建立于上海的开放式舞蹈项目，致力于支持中国当代独立舞蹈和表演艺术家的成长，帮助他们编舞、制作并展现作品，向国内外推广。自2007年起，“不乱扭”企图转变人们对于当代舞蹈艺术的看法，从对于“中国性”、“国家特点”的关注，转向所有人都能理解的、通过直观的人类身体表现的肢体语言，更富有想象力，更重视细微的姿态。编舞者Nunu Kong希望在我们自己身上和我们所身处的世界中找寻到共有的奇特人性，赋以新奇的纬度和超现实的关系，来创造现代中国的原始舞蹈剧场。“不乱扭”已在国际上进行过多次演出，并在地创作了一系列短小的片段。最近的项目包括由昆虫插画启发创作的《虫子们都疯了》，以及和艺术家苏拉西·库索旺（Surasi Kusolwong）合作的表演《若我可以让死去的艺术家复活一分钟，我愿意》。
Schweigman&剧场由Boukje Schweigman带领。她的创作注重身体性，总是以运动、设计、灯光、声音和对于空间的处理来模糊演员和观众的界限，增加感官体验。Schweigman从不基于文本创作，而选择以普遍的身体语言、图像、空间和感官体验呈现。因此她的作品适合在世界巡演，已经前往过埃及、白俄罗斯、黎巴嫩、伊朗、约旦、玻利维亚和中国。其多次获奖的作品也获得了发行商和观众的肯定和喜欢，被誉为是真实的、诗意的、亲切的作品。