Aira Nagineviciute’s latest contemporary dance production “Chimera’s Beads” features five women dancers of different ages. The five women embody powerful feminine archetypes related to a mythical monstrous creature. The fire-breathing female creature is unpredictable; it can be dangerous, tender, loving or motherly.

    Each of the five women in the performance undergoes a cycle of transformation while maintaining their own rhythm and flow. They slide their desires, illusions, and experiences as beads on a string, shedding their skins as snakes and leaving them behind in order to go on with the eternal cycle of life. Women on stage do not abide by the standards of beauty: the costume designer and choreographer change and transform the women’s bodies to emphasize unusual forms and proportions, which signify their strengths and feminine vitality.

    Rather than being monstrous creatures, chimeras on stage represent female archetypes: life-giving Mother, poisonous messenger Snake, and all-encompassing unrestrained Passion, which sets into motion the cycle of death and rebirth of the three-headed creature.

    For five years choreographer Aira Nagineviciute has been working with composer Vladas Dieninis, experimenting on the overlap of sound and dance and creating music by means of dance. The artists use various constructions, objects, environments and bodies of dancers to create sound sculptures here and now. Dancers aim to transform acoustic environmental signals into optical structures, to turn invisible music into a visible movement.

    Spatial scenography, optical music, and the aesthetics of “not beautiful” bodies marked by women’s hard experiences intrigue spectators. The performances have strong identity characterized by intensely visual stage images, interdisciplinary way of thinking and examinations of inner states of a human being through movement.

    Time: 7:30 p.m., March 18-19

    Tickets: 50-200 yuan

    Venue: Shixia Theater Hall, Futian Cultural Hall, 3006 Fuqiang Road (福强路3006号福田区文化馆戏剧主题馆)

    Metro: Longgang Line, Yitian Station (益田站), Exit B(SD News)