The daluo and xialuo cymbals reverberate as they clash. The jinghu, a high-pitched, two-string fiddle, warbles with the fluctuating melodies of the opera singers. The sight of the yellows, reds and jades of the embroidered costumes creates an explosion of colors and textures on the stage.
These are the sounds and images Jia Wu, a world arts and cultures graduate student, grew up with in the Hunan Province of China during the 1980s. These, too, are the sounds and images reflected in Wu’s hour-long WAC master’s thesis recital, “Situ-Asian,” Saturday at 8 p.m. in Glorya Kaufman Hall.
While Saturday’s performance marks her first completely self-choreographed show at UCLA, Wu is no stranger to the dance world. After joining a local dance studio at age 5, she danced continuously throughout her childhood and attended the prestigious Beijing Dance Academy as a performance and choreography student.
Wu’s experience at the Dance Academy was not without its challenges, though. Wu, at approximately 5 feet 1 inch, was not within the desired 5-4 to 5-7 height range of a dancer. Wu’s teacher, however, saw her potential as a choreographer.
“My teacher just said to me, “˜It’s going to be really hard for you to continue your performing life or your pursuing your professional performing dance as an artist. Maybe you can think about switching your major,'” Wu said.
“At that time, I (felt) really, really sad. It’s like somebody tell you, you did nothing … like giving you zero for your 15 years of training.”
Despite her initial desire to be a dancer, Wu realized that choreography allowed her greater artistic flexibility.
“At that time, I started to think about “˜What is choreography? What does choreography mean to me?'” Wu said. “We use the movements, we use the bodies to tell the ideas, to tell the stories ““ it’s really interesting to me. So, I think, “˜Ah, yes, now choreography.'”
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in the rigorous performing and choreography program and teaching at the dance department at South China Normal University, Wu wished to expand westward upon the skills she gained in her education.
“I was very curious about which kind of concepts, ideas and opinions, and what kinds of works Western choreographers were interested in,” she said. “Sometimes, we have some problems. We would see some piece, some masterpiece, but we don’t know how to appreciate (it). I mean, I appreciate beautiful movements, but it’s hard for us to understand deeper about the choreographer’s concept.”
To learn more about the different styles of dance, Wu came to UCLA in 2004 to pursue her master of fine arts degree.
“I think UCLA, especially this department, is very open,” she said. “It’s not just about the traditional ethnic dances.”
With the acquisition of new dance techniques and westernized dance concepts, such as dance for camera, Wu not only wishes to showcase these concepts in “Situ-Asian,” but also is excited by the possibilities of bringing these Western devices back home.
“In China, they need to know the new concepts, the new technology, but they also need some bridge to communicate here,” Wu said.
New techniques are not all that Wu learned with her time in the United States, however.
“What I learned from here is about collaboration,” she said. “I inspire you some new ideas, you inspire me some new ideas, and we spark some very new ideas.”
This collaboration is the cornerstone of “Situ-Asian,” a show that hinges upon the balance between the maintenance of traditional Chinese values for modern Chinese women and the changing modern world.
For example, the show’s titular first piece begins with a film that portrays a story similar to that of Wu’s childhood experiences. The political piece “Poker-Face,” on the other hand, portrays the two faces of diplomacy in both China and the United States. With the influence of Charlie Chaplin and other Western comedians, Wu imitates their movements and expressions to advance her views on international politics and diplomacy.
The last piece, “The Other Shore,” exemplifies the fusion presented in the show, showing an abstract view of how everyone, no matter what age or ethnicity, is looking for life’s purpose.
Chinese tradition will always influence Wu’s life, but her perspective on modern issues is what she will ultimately bring to the modern dance world.
“I’m more concerned about … a negotiation between the popular culture, the Hollywood culture,” Wu said. “The people love to see showgirls … we can do that also. But how can we hold our traditional culture? (My) piece is about how we can negotiate, how we can live in this kind of marketing society.”