Shanghai Dance Theater: Dance Drama Crested Ibises in Shanghai

Date: June 23-24 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai International Dance Center

Crested ibis, a beautiful and precious species symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness, is known as the "bird of good fortune". Long ago in the agrarian age, people lived in harmony with crested ibis as good friends and companions. In our deep memory, crested ibis is a kind of affectionate bird. They are reserved, elegant, pure and noble, yet also sensitive, vulnerable and suspicious. No one knows since when these birds gradually faded away from our sight. In less than 100 years' time, wild crested ibises were declared to be endangered. In May 1981, Chinese scientists discovered seven wild crested ibises in Yangxian county, Shaanxi province. The once declared as endangered "bird of good fortune" reappeared in our sight. Today, with consciousness and meticulous care in China, Japan, Korea and Eastern Siberia, crested ibises are exhibiting an auspicious sign of revival.

Music in the Summer Air: Velvet Underground 50th Anniversary Memorial Concert in Shanghai

Date: July 11 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Shanghai Symphony Hall

The Velvet Underground are an avantgarde New York City band whose unconventional and screeching sounds paved and shaped the roads of "underground" rock 'n' roll. Beginning in small clubs, the band originally enjoyed a cult-like following of dedicated fans, who rejoiced in a sound that, at the time, was deemed "undanceable". Eventually, the band emerged from the cracks and shadows of Greenwich Village to form a union with the infamous Andy Warhol, whose notoriety catapulted the group of experimentalists to new and unseen heights. As they linked up to travel the Unites States, they overwhelmed audiences everywhere with a surreal concoction of images, films, lighting effects, and music, known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable tour. With not only a rock 'n' roll Hall of Fame induction under their belt but also four albums in the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of all Time, The Velvet Underground still influences a younger generation of artists, who one can only hope will uphold the underground's tradition of challenging and piercing the conventional boundaries of not only music, but creativity as a whole.