Journey from the West

By working with Petitgirard, Wang choreographed a dance piece, titled Journey to the West. As the 14th edition of the Yabin and Her Friends project, the dance piece will be premiered in Wang's hometown, Tianjin, on Friday.

"I was impressed by his (Petitgirard's) idea, and we soon decided to work together," recalls Wang, adding that Dong Qiang, a renowned scholar and translator, who is the dean of the Yenching Academy of Peking University and the chair of the French department of the School of Foreign Languages of Peking University, introduced her to Petitgirard. Dong serves as the literature consultant in the dance project.

"I grew up reading Journey to the West and watching the cartoon and TV drama adapted from the classic novel. Many Chinese people are familiar with the story, but it really intrigued me how a foreign reader would interpret the story," says Wang.

"My goal was to write music for a dance expressing the poetry of the original text and conveying the spiritual elevation achieved by facing the ordeals depicted," says Petitgirard. "The French composer begs indulgence for being so bold as to take on such a monument of Chinese literature."

The 85-minute symphonic music piece consists of three parts. In the first part, the composer starts with a piece titled Xuanzang Has a Dream and Sets Off on His Journey, and portrays his disciples with more pieces, such as Sun Wukong Is Saved, Winning Over Zhu Wuneng — Zhu Bajie and Winning Over Sha Wujing — Monk Sha. He also depicted the character Guanyin, the bodhisattva, who is a goddess of mercy in the novel.

"Of course, Sun Wukong, the rebel, is fascinating, maybe more than Xuanzang, who is perfect. But don't forget Guanyin, the goddess, she is always present to help. Yabin is my Guanyin," says the composer, adding that there are five percussionists in the orchestra, and he chose to use Chinese cymbals.

"After this work, based on the fabulous book, I feel a little bit Chinese myself," adds Petitgirard, who has worked with Chinese composer Chen Qigang as a conductor.

Petitgirard himself traveled to Hungary and took up the baton to conduct the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra Budapest in recording Journey to the West in October 2021.

"I listened to the piece, which is full of imagination. When I started to choreograph, I tried to capture the spirit of the novel by telling the story through the eyes of Sun Wukong. Though it's a classic novel, the dance piece is contemporary," says Wang, adding that she used elements of martial arts and traditional Chinese operas in her choreography.