2017 House Programs Under Siege | Page 14

LEAD PERFORMERS GUO YI Xiao He HE SHANG Xiang Yu HU SHENYUAN Yu Ji A Principle Actor in Shanghai Peking Opera Theatre, Guo Yi specializes in “old male” acting. Guo graduated from Beijing Opera School and Shanghai Theater Academy, has studied in many famous Chinese Peking Opera schools and with many famous Peking Opera masters such as Chen Shaoyun. Chen is the National Named Successor of QI Style Performance. Guo won the 2012 Shanghai Outstanding Artist Award, Gold Award at the Seventh CCTV Young Peking Opera Performance Competition and First in Yunnan Peking Opera Performance Competition. He Shang began studying classical Chinese dance at the Shenyang Conservatory of Music in 2009. He won the Young Men’s Classical Gold Medal at the 9th Peach Blossom Cup Dance Competition with the dance New Life. This dance competition, held by the Ministry of Culture, is the most important youth dance competition in China. After graduating in 2010, He left the world of dance but returned to the stage in 2015 in search of pure, sincere dance—joining Yang Liping’s modern dance company in this role and working as a choreographer. Hu Shenyuan hails from Luzhou, Sichuan Province. Hu studied dance at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Art in 2004 and entered the Minzu University of China to study dance education in 2009. Hu joined the Beijing LDTX Dance Company in 2011 as a professional performer, taking part in classic productions as All River Red, Layer Code, Standing Before Darkness, Sorrowful Song, Treading on Grass and Cold Dagger, touring with the company across Europe and Australia. Hu joined TAO Dance Theatre in 2013 to study modern dance techniques, and became an independent dancer in 2014. In 2015 Hu joined the European tour of Yabin Wang and Sidi Larbi’s project Genesis. Hu was featured in the documentary TWIST, which is currently travelling the European film festival circuit. Hu joined the cast of Under Siege in 2014, in the female role of Yu Ji, which in Peking Opera has been traditionally played by men.