The Distant Land of My Father January 8, 2009

Over the past twenty-seven years, artistic director and choreographer Margaret Wingrove has inspired dance performances from the works of authors T.S. Eliot, Tennessee Williams and Sylvia Plath as well as from the paintings of Edvard Munch.

This year, the San Jose veteran choreographer and founder of The Margaret Wingrove Dance Company, takes Bo Caldwell’s best-selling memoir-like novel, The Distant Land of My Father, and turns it into a richly lyrical story of love, betrayal and reconciliation that unfolds between the cities of Shanghai and Los Angeles throughout three decades.

The performance is based on the story is of a polo-playing millionaire in Shanghai in the 1930s who leads a double life as an insurance salesman and a freewheeling smuggler. When the Japanese invade, the man’s wife and young daughter flee to Los Angeles. He stays behind and is imprisoned and tortured by Japanese and Chinese communists. Though he survives, he loses his family - for a time - but not forever.

The performance features Chinese music played with traditional instruments as well as music from the 1960s, including Frank Sinatra's “Moonlight Serenade” and “California Dreamin” by the Mamas and the Papas. Composer Scotty Arnold completes the performance with contemporary pieces composed solely for this World Premiere.

Official Website: http://www.MWDance.com