Crossing Mountains & Seas is an inter-disciplinary production that fuses contemporary and aerial dance, original music with Chinese traditions, and interactive multimedia projection. The performance is a journey through an imaged video game that crosses over modern day Canada and a magical world of pre-historic China, as described in the ancient book Shan Hai Jing or the Classic of Mountains & Seas. Crossing Mountains & Seas celebrates how the various creatures in Shan Hai Jing had lived in harmony with each other, which is a metaphor of an ideal multi-cultural society that we are seeking today. Within an imaged role-playing video game game, players can interact and collaborate, no matter what their nationality, ethnicity, physical appearance, age, and gender would be. The production also showcases the creative aspects of gaming and the infinite possibilities of video technology. The game acts as a portal for our characters to travel between the ancient and modern worlds, the east and the west, the sea and the sky, and the reality and our imagination. Vertical dancers (members of Aeriosa Dance) are suspended in the air to break the boundary of performance space on a multi-dimensional stage. Against dramatic media projection with the latest video technology, brush-painting characters are animated in ever-changing scenes. Live music is scored for the combination of Chinese and western instruments for this adventurous journey. Shan Hai Jing 山海經 is an enormous collection of ancient Chinese writings and drawings about a magical world where countless mythical creatures or hybrids of human and animals have lived in over 100 kingdoms. This book is deeply connected to all aspects of Chinese culture. Taoism, myths and legends, rituals, and common beliefs can all be traced back to Shan Hai Jing. #verticaldance #vancouvershow #multimedia #vancouverdance #vanvouverevents #vancouveraerialdance #vancouvercollaboration (at Vancouver Playhouse) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzdtASlhkGD/?igshid=1hv2h4rx6ilok
