“Weaving and We” Performance Series at Zhejiang Museum of Art

"Weaving & We" Performance Series as part of the 2016 Hangzhou Triennial of Fibre Art, Ping Pong Productions was invited by the Zhejiang Museum of Art to curate a performing arts series, entitled “Weaving & We.” Across four weekends, the series weaved dance, music, theatre, and film to explore how the physical act of weaving relates to the intertwining of communities, identities, and knowledge. The series featured a diverse array of interactive events, including performances, workshops, film screenings, and lectures by invited experts.

About the Artists in the Series

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Hutong Yellow Weasels

The Hutong Yellow Weasels, China’s only old-time American music and barn dance band, have played in more than 20 cities and at multiple festivals across China.

Grass Stage Theater

Grass Stage was established in 2005 by Director Zhao Chuan and friends, modeling itself on the itinerant grassroots troupes that performed at festivals throughout rural China. Their works have been showed in many theatre festivals in cities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Germany.

Pan Jianhua

Professor Pan Jianhua is a professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy and leading expert in costume and set design. He lectures and publishes widely and has won China's highest awards in his field.

Gu Jiani

Choreographer Gu Jiani is one of China's rising star contemporary dance choreogrpahers. Winner of the 2011 “Best Young Choreographer” award and 2013 bronze medal for choreography in the annual Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition, her works have toured cities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, the US and Australia.

Performance Series Calendar

  • September 24, 2016: Hutong Yellow Weasels: Old-time American Music Concert & Square Dance
    • Hutong Yellow Weasels performed a lineup of early American folk songs and taught the Hangzhou audience of all ages how to square dance to the music.


  • September 25, 2016: Grass Stage: "World Factory" performance and post-show discussion
    • Directed by Zhao Chuan and performed by the Shanghai-based Grass Stage theatre troupe, "World Factory" is a performance exploring issues of factory outsourcing in our globalized economy, inspired by Zhao Chuan’s trip to Manchester, UK in 2009, and the role of China as the perceived "world's factory."


  • October 15, 2016: Film screening & Lecture: "Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes"
    • Screening of the iconic documentary produced by Washington DC's National Gallery of Art was followed by Shanghai Theatre Academy professor and leading costume design expert Professor Pan Jianhua's lecture exploring the history of costume and textile design with ballet.


  • October 23, 2016: Gu Jiani: “Cause-Effect” Dance Workshop & Talk
    • Dance workshop led by Ping Pong-produced artist Gu Jiani introduced participants to ways of leveraging the body's force, weight, momentum, and other physics concepts, while paying particular attention to the interaction of force on limb movements and transference of energy between two bodies acting upon each other.
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