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Taiwan Troupe Uses Jazz to Depict Love Tragedy
A Taiwan dance troupe portrayed a well-known Chinese legendary love tragedy with western Jazz Sunday evening at the Sixth China Art Festival in Nanjing, capital of the eastern Jiangsu Province.
"I did not expect that Chinese fairy tales could be narrated in the form of Jazz," said college student Liu Yanhua.
The Jazz drama of "Story of White Snake," characterized by its connection with Chinese tradition, combines traditional Chinese culture with western jazz dance to produce the first "Chinese Jazz Dance" in Asia and worldwide, according to Peggy Wu, director and actress of the show.
The drama has been staged by Peggy Wu Jazz Dance Company in Xuzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou of Jiangsu Province, the sub- venues of the national-level art gala which started on September 28.
"The original taste of the fairy tale was not reduced by the modern form of Jazz. Meanwhile, Jazz also gave people an impressive feeling," Liu said.
Peggy Wu Jazz Dance Company, formed in Taiwan in 1989, was named after Peggy Wu, initiator of jazz dance in Taiwan.
The troupe is known for its innovation in performing forms and styles, and is especially famous for combining jazz dance with the essence of Chinese traditional dances.
In Chinese fairy tales, the White Snake, after practicing asceticism for thousands of years, became a beautiful woman named Bai Shuzhen. She met a young man named Xu Xian. They fell in love and got married.
Their tranquil family life, however, was disrupted by an old monk named Fahai, the representative of those who advocate a rigorous moral code. Persuading Xu Xian to come to the Jinshan Temple, Fahai warned him that he was married to an evil spirit. When Bai came to find her husband, the monk refused to let her see him. Thus, Bai was compelled to resort to magic, whipping up the surrounding waters and flooding the temple. But she was finally separated from her husband.
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