After the opening performance, I was really tired or allowed myself to be so. Dancing on concrete takes its physical toll too. It’s something I can manage occasionally and am happy to do if it allows my work to find new places and people. But I also need periods where the conditions are kinder. Today wasn’t one of the kind days: I warmed up in Jingshan park, a beautiful park overlooking the Forbidden city. It’s not too weird to do back stretches and yoga fire breathing there as parks are a common location for people to do their callisthenics and tai chi. It’s weird only when I lie on the ground.
I was warming up there because we had performances on Wanfujing, the main shopping street.
I wasn’t sure I could marshall the energy to focus myself enough to perform but when the time came, I knelt in front of a big video screen advertising the Olympics and hamburgers and started again, trying to find some stillness in myself as the busy city circled round.
A plain clothes policeman interrupted my performance and told me to go. I said ‘I’m dancing, wo tiaowu’, but he was having none of it….
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