Listings

Shows

Cirkopolis by Cirque Eloize

Date: July 3-9 - 7:15 pm

Venue: Shanghai Grand Theater

Price: 80-680 yuan

With Cirkopolis, Cirque Eloize presents a show that combines the worlds of circus, dance and theatre. In the heart of a stern and imposing city in appearance, giant gears and dark portals symbolize a mechanism that crushes individuality. Performing within an inventive stage design and accompanied by an original musical score and video projections, 10 acrobats and multidisciplinary artists rebel against monotony, reinvent themselves and challenge the limits of the factory-city. In a world where fantasy provokes reality, the veil of anonymity and solitude is lifted and replaced by bursts of color. Cirkopolis unfolds scene by scene like an elemental universe, with sculptural imagery: jugglers brave the space, a contortionist is lifted by her companions in a surge of inspiration, and aerial artists defy the height of the skyscrapers. Experiencing Cirkopolis is also stepping into the dance of the Cyr wheel, dreading the audacity of the German wheel and discovering the candor of a man who dreams only of dancing. "Cirkopolis was imagined as a crossroads - between imagination and reality, between individuality and community, between limits and possibilities. The show is driven by the poetic impulse of life, the physical prowess of the circus and the humor, at once serious and light-hearted. Entering Cirkopolisis all about letting go and allowing yourself to be borne aloft by hope," explains Jeannot Painchaud, creative director of Cirque Eloize and co-director of Cirkopolis. Founded in 1993, Cirque Eloize combines circus arts with dance, theatre and music with path-breaking panache. Continually engaged in artistic experimentation, Cirque Eloize is a leader in contemporary circus arts, with more than 4,000 performances to its credit in some 500 cities around the world. In addition to its touring shows, Cirque Eloize develops customized concepts for international special events, more than 1,400 to date.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Stomp 2016 World Tour

Date: July 2-17 - 7:30 pm

Venue: PLA Theater, Beijing

Price: 180-1,280 yuan

Stomp has been touring the globe for 24 years, doing over 20,000 performances for more than 12 million people in 53 countries on 6 continents. There are up to five Stomp companies performing worldwide at any time; one on tour in North America, another in Europe, en touring the rest of the world, one in New York (now in its 22nd year) and one in London (now celebrating its 13th year). In its lifetime Stomp has consumed over 50,000 boxes of matches, 30,000 brooms, 20,000 bins, 10,000 drumsticks and 25,000 liters of black paint applied with 737 paint rollers. Stomp has featured in two commercials for JACCS in Japan; one for Apples in Australia; one for Heineken in the UK; one for Coca-Cola International; five commercials for Target Department stores in the US and three for Toyota in Japan. The Target advertisements (directed by Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas) won the Award for "Best TV Campaign of 1994" on the US RAC Awards. The Apples Advertisement won a "Silver Lion" at Cannes. Stomp performed live at the 1996 Academy Awards (the Oscars) to an estimated audience of almost 1 billion worldwide. The largest assembly of Stomp performers ever (40 performers from 12 different countries) was brought together for a specially choreographed appearance at the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Dora the Explorer Live!

Date: July 2-3 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai Children Art Theater

Price: 80-480 yuan

Shanghai Children Art Theatre Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys has been tremendously successful worldwide and now she's headed to "Big Whale" Theatre this summer. Dora is embarking on her most important mission yet in Nickelodeon's Dora the Explorer Live! Search for the City of Lost Toys. Dora has lost her teddy bear and the search is on to find him. With help from the audience, Boots, Map, Backpack, Diego and more, Dora uses her directional, counting, musical and language skills to successfully pass through the Number Pyramid and the Mixed-up Jungle to reach the City of Lost Toys. But watch out. You never know what that sneaky fox Swiper might be up to along the way! Families will delight in this 80-minute live theatrical production that invites audiences to think, sing and play along. Dora is designed to teach kids to explore, communicate, overcome obstacles, solve puzzles and discover a diverse and exciting world all while having a lot of fun.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Eastern Trilogy Escaping From The Temple

Date: July 3 - 7:15 pm

Venue: Shanghai Culture Square

Price: 80-350 yuan

Escaping From The Temple is the final chapter of the series of Oriental Desire of The Soul Trilogy, directed by the well-known modern dance choreographer and director, Zhao Liang. It is adapted from the two most impressive pieces of kunqu - Si Fan and Shuang Xia Shan, and reinterprets two roles - a nun, "Se Kong" and a monk, "Ben Wu" in the two pieces. While making no changes to the role of the monk "Ben Wu", Zhao Liang creates 2 nuns - "Se" and "Kong" to present the original sole nun. The two pieces have been perfectly combined and performed with the dramatic device, "play-within-a-play" so that audience will be impressed by a multi visual dimensional stage presentation.

Zhao Liang, who lived in northern Europe before, has been trying in different spaces, environmental and physical. He has also won numerous awards and won the first international modern dance competitions in Italy.

He has founded ZhaoLiangART dance studio in 2012. In recent years, the studio has created "unlimited relations", "Man", "Unbelievable" and so on. Each show has had great influences in the performing art industry.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Light

Date: until Aug 27 - 9 am-4:30 pm,

Venue: Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, Peking University, Beijing.

Cui Xiuwen is considered a leading contemporary Chinese artist for embracing a feminine perspective in her figurative paintings and vanguard video works. Her recent creations, though, have become more abstract, engaging a broader scope of thinking in terms of religion and philosophy. At her current show, Cui arranges the works in four sections, each exploring one dimension of a person's existence: physical being, heart, soul and destiny. She adopts a simple color scheme using such colors as red, green, yellow and blue, which she believes encapsulate enormous energies that enrich the vision of humans.

The main exhibition hall displays Cui's other interactive installations, which produce effects of light and seek to engage viewers in a process of "soul searching". People can walk through a 30-meter-long passage filled with artificial light, with dozens of luminous red frames twisted in varying angles.

The exhibition is presented by the Jillian Sackler international artists project. It was launched in 2013 by Jillian Sackler, widow of Arthur M. Sackler, an American physician and collector, who proposed and sponsored the building of the Sackler museum. The project brings to the venue an artist' solo exhibition every year.

Contact: 010-6275-9784.

ACTIVITIES & NIGHTLIFE

2016 Shanghai Young Art Fair

Date: July 2-4 - 2 pm

Venue: Shanghai Exhibition Center

Price: 80-198 yuan

With Transience Metro: Scape as its theme, Shanghai Young Art Fair 2016 features three regular exhibition areas, namely "Transience Metro: Scape", "Top 24" and "Galaxy of Galleries" with one hall called "Future Perspective". The main exhibition part is presented by two renowned guest planners, Yu Ke, professor of Sichuan Fine Art Institute, together with Du Xiyun, an independent art curator. They manage to unfold an infinity of panoramas of the modern young art/city life fusion. "The exhibition aims to accentuate the interconnections between artistic creations of urban culture and the development of its host, a city or a country itself. It reflects the profoundness of their history and reveals their future path of progression," says Yu Ke, the art curator of 2016 Shanghai Young Art Fair. "As a vibrant metropolis and bellwether of national trends, Shanghai constantly renews its appearance. Thus we can only capture a brief period of time when trying to summarize it. But we do consider it pivotal to make the picture accurate and farsighted," says Xiyun Du, art curator of 2016 Shanghai Young Art Fair.

Contact: 400-610-3721

R Lifestyle - Themed Ladies Night

Date: Every Thursday - 8 pm

Venue: Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel

Price: Free

As one of the classical events of the "Evening at Renaissance" collection, our Ladies Night, which creates the image of elegance, energetic, stylish and chic, has always been an attraction to local guests in Beijing. Now you are about to witness a significant enhancement in these events with the most welcomed local elements: Baijiu Tasting, Guzheng Music, Spring Blossom, Local Fashion Show and Local Songwriters... These factors of local cultural discovery are ready to WOW you, and bring about unique experiences of local culture only at the Renaissance Beijing Capital Hotel/Ladies present will enjoy exquisite cocktails free flow and canapes, while gentlemen can also enjoy themselves with our buy-one-get-one-free discount on the theme-inspired cocktails. Join the crowd for a themed Ladies Night every Thursday, and allow us to show you the "Business Unusual" lifestyle.

Contact: 010-5863-8221

East Shore Live Jazz Cafe

Date: Everyday from 11 am

Venue: 2 Qianhai Nanyan Lu

Price: 100-199 yuan

Boasting dark wood paneling and floor-to-ceiling windows offering an eyeful of Houhai, this small jazz dive defines urban sophistication. Started by Liu Yuan, Cui Jian's former saxophonist, it's the most authentic jazz joint in town, featuring top acts from Thursday to Sunday. In warmer months, arrive in time to take in stunning sunset views from their second-floor terrace. When Liu Yuan started playing the sax, jazz was still seen as bourgeois and chord charts were hard to come by. Raised by folk-musician parents, he performed with Cui Jian, the father of Chinese rock, before dedicating himself under the influences of John Coltrane and Miles Davis to jazz. Now Liu's East Shore is the most promising venue in Beijing's budding jazz scene. Located on the banks of Houhai Lake, East Shore is a refuge from the trinket sellers and gaudy bars along the crowded shore. Its large windows give clear views over the water, and leather armchairs and dark wooden floorboards provide the necessary sultry ambience. Thursdays through Sundays, a constellation of house bands, including the owner's Liu Yuan Jazz Quartet, plays from 10 pm until late, usually packing the 30-some-seat bar.

Contact: 400-610-3721

2016 Sino-Sierra Leone International Cultural Exchange Year

Date: Through the end of 2016

Venue: Embassy of Sierra Leone in Beijing

Price: Free

The 2016 Sino-Sierra Leone International Cultural Exchange Year was officially kicked off recently in Beijing, marking the official launch of the Africa Asia Development Cooperation Organization, with a buffet reception held by the organization in the Embassy of Sierra Leone in Beijing. The event, which will last through the end of 2016, aims at enhancing the mutual understanding and friendship between people in Asia and in Africa, through introducing to each other the culture and art of modern China and Asia in multiple forms, such as painting, handicraft, folk art, film and photography, according to Zhang Guoyi, the secretary-general of the organization.

Contact: 138-1121-2110

Sports

2016 Shanghai Rolex Masters

Date: Oct 9-16 - 1 pm

Venue: Shanghai Qi Zhong Tennis Center

Price: 160-900 yuan

Welcome to the 8th Edition of the Shanghai Rolex Masters, one of the world's biggest tennis tournaments and the only such tournament to be staged outside North America and Europe. The Shanghai Rolex Masters is one of only nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments in the world and is the culmination and feature event of the Asian Swing. The Shanghai Rolex Masters was named ATP Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The singles is a 56-player draw which means the top eight seeds get first round byes. It is elimination from the first round. There are four wild cards, determined by the tournament directors and seven qualifiers who come through a 28-player qualifying draw. In doubles, it is a 24-team draw meaning the eight seeds have first round byes. It is also elimination from the first round. A total of 99 matches will be played - 55 in singles, 23 in doubles and 21 in qualifying.

Contact: 400-610-3721