A multi-media collage of music, dance and video takes the stage at Xinghai Concert Hall this month as more than a dozen Canadian and Chinese artists team up for their second tour in China. The Canadian-based Snell Thouin Project (STP) and the Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC) will leap into Guangzhou on November 6 for a night of mystical prancing in the world-tour production of Bone.

The production combines dance, theatre, live music and film. During the performance, 12 of China's top toe twirlers move to the music of Canadian composer Jerry Snell. Snell's score fuses alternative rock and sacred music performed with traditional Chinese instruments. Film sequences produced by Daniel Cross add some more eye candy to the routine.

The hour and fifteen minute performance, with no intermission, is supposed to elevate the senses to an almost spiritual realm. The idea of this is to rediscover our connection with the Divine, said Nadine Thouin, the choreographer who created Bone while living in Beijing in 2002. I hope the audience gets 75 minutes of real feeling about the human condition and our situation in this world while at the same time escaping from our present reality.

Bone made its world premiere in October 2002 in Beijing. Since then the troupe has traveled to more than 34 cities in 20 countries and has now come full circle to audiences on the mainland. By March 2004, the performance will join the Danse Danse series where it will make its Canadian tour debut in Montreal. The production follows the success of STP and BMDC's earlier success known as the Cash project, which made its Asian Tour in 2001.

The Cash project included performances, an album and a documentary film directed by Cross. Bone is expected to follow suit so that audiences will have a chance to re-experience its creation.

(that's magazines November 24, 2003)