May Festival 2007

Organizer：Caochangdi Workstation, Living Dance Studio, Beijing
Co-organizers: Goethe Institute China, BORNEOCO (the Netherlands)
Support：DOEN Foundation (the Netherlands)
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to China, Holland Film

Curators: Wu Wenguang, Wen Hui

Date: 29 April to 6 May, 2007
Location: Caochangdi Workstaion, Beijing

This spring of 2007, Caochangdi Workstation is delighted to present it’s second May Festival. As in the previous year, the festival consists of two parts: Performance Space and Film Forum. In Performance Space, fourteen young choreographers from Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou will be presenting their most recent works as participants of the second Caochangdi Workstation’s Young Choreographer Project. Performance Space also hosts numerous lectures from artists around the world. Zhang Xian, a theater director from Shanghai, and Ong Keng Sen, artistic director from TheatreWorks of Singapore, will lecture on creating for the stage. Yinan Li, a stage researcher from Germany, and Maria M. Schwaegermann, Artistic Director of Zuercher Theater Speaktakel, will also speak on trends and new directions of contemporary performance art.

“With Pina Bausch” will present videos of FRüHLINGSOPFER and CAFE MüLLER, two masterpiece of the German choreographer Pina Bausch, a prestigious figure in the world’s dance scene. Peter Stamer, a German dance critic and dramaturge, will speak on Pina Bausch’s Gestures. Stamer will help the audience understand Bausch’s artistic approaches, styles and their social implications by placing them both in historical and a present-day contexts.? This special event gives the audience an opportunity to experience Pina Bausch here at Caochangdi even though she herself may not be here. With Pina Bausch will also host talks given by two visiting German stage specialists. These talks will usher in the “Exchange Program of Performance Art between China and Germany”, a joint project between Caochangdi Workstation and Goethe Institute, China.

Film Forum 2007 will carry on the legacy from last year and will highlight a “Documentary Unit”, which will present China’s latest independent documentary film productions of the year. An “Experimental and Student Shorts Video” screening and a “Dance Cinema” screening, together with the “Dutch Documentary Films” screening will diversify and enrich this year’s Film Forum.

Participants of May Festival 2007 should expect not simply to observe artistic presentations but also to engage in discussions and the exchange of ideas between stage artists, filmmakers, specialists and audience. Discussions are especially important for the Young Choreographer Project, which was launched by Caochangdi Workstation in 2006 to encourage young Chinese stage artists to produce creative works. In 2006, the project invited Arco Renz, a German choreographer based in Brussels, to be it’s arts mentor. This year, the project is proud to have renowned theater director Ong Keng Sen as its arts mentor and German stage specialists Peter Stamer and Yinan Li as its dramaturges.

On-the-spot trainings are always of great importance to the May Festival. Apart from the Body Workshop, facilitated by Peter Stamer, the festival will also host a post-production training workshop for villager documentary filmmakers. Village Documentary Project is a long-term project Caochangdi Workstation began in 2005. Since the completion of their first films, the villager filmmakers have continued to film their villages, and Caochangdi continues to support these projects. A number of them will be attending the May Festival, during which time they will be able to start editing their new films while participating in other events.

At the same time, a new project aimed at training young documentary filmmakers will kick off during the May Festival. At this time, forty young people from around the nation will embark on a new journey in documentary filmmaking.

Schedule of Caochangdi May Festival（2007）

Contact information
Phone call: 6433 7243, 6433 6143;
Contact person: Mr. Pei
Website: www.ccdworkstation.com

Performance Space

>>Young Choreographer Project 2007<<

>>Workshop & Lectures<<

Film Forum

>>Documentary Film Screenings<<

>>Experimental And Short Student Video Screenings<<

>>Dance Cinema:Pina Bausch<<

>>Dutch Documentary Screenings<<