Photo Flash: First Look at Shanghai Dance Theatre's SOARING WINGS, Coming to Lincoln Center This Winter

By: BWW News Desk Dec. 05, 2017

China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) presents the New York premiere of the Shanghai Dance Theatre (SDT) and their production of Soaring Wings, a new dance drama about "the bird of good fortune," the crested ibis, and the interdependence between human beings and nature. The production will play the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for three performances only: January 5 and 6 at 8PM, and January 7 at 1PM. BroadwayWorld has a stunning first look at the dancers onstage below!

With traditional Chinese music, opulent costumes, and expressive choreography, Soaring Wings is an internationally award-winning dance drama about the crested ibises, beautiful and precious rare creatures, which symbolize happiness and blessings. Centuries ago, human beings lived in harmony with these birds - reserved, elegant, sacred and noble, yet also sensitive, vulnerable and occasionally distant. With modernization and urbanization though, the living environment of the crested ibis began to deteriorate and in the middle of the 20thCentury, it was declared that crested ibises were endangered species.

The story, focusing on issues of environmental protection for these international preserved rare bird species, is written by Luo Huaizhen, composed by Guo Sida and directed and choreographed by Tong Ruirui. In May 1981, Chinese scientists accidentally discovered seven wild crested ibises in Yang county, Shaanxi province and today, in China, Japan, Korea and eastern Siberia, with increasingly conscious and careful protection, the population of crested ibis has been growing as an auspicious sign. Soaring Wings shows the importance of keeping a harmonious relationship with animals and reflects the interdependence between human beings and nature.

Soaring Wings stars Zhu Jiejing and Wang Jiajun, both principal dancers of the Shanghai Dance Theatre. Produced byChen Feihua, the artistic director of the Shanghai Dance Theatre, Soaring Wings has set design by Zhang Jiwen, costume design by Zhong Jiani, lighting design by Xing Xin, makeup design by Xu Bin, and props design by Li Hongchao.

Tickets, priced from $22 to $167 (plus a $3.50 facility fee), are currently available at the David H. Koch Theater Box Office, online at www.DavidHKochTheater.com or by calling 212-496-0600.