Leila: Jungua presents the best talents in the most revered culture traditions of China featuring the Shaolin Disciples and the Imperial Acrobats. It celebrates Chinese culture in an explosion of kung fu, acrobatics, music and dance.
Hi! Welcome to watchmojo.com, I'm your host Leila. Let's explore the magic of Jungua. A modern stage production, 2000 years in the making, as described by Artistic Director, Mark Edward McGuire who joins me now.
As Artistic Director, you're in charge of the music, the choreography, the stage direction, what do you enjoy best?
Mark Edward McGuire: The Chinese do things that nobody else in the world does. And they do things in a way that nobody else in the world does them and I just love the whole package.
Leila: How has working with such talented artists heightened your job?
Mark Edward McGuire: On the one hand, their technical level of skill is very high, and on the other hand, most of the Chinese acrobats have no training in dance or stage movement, its skill, skill, skill. When I announce that the first thing we're going to work out and it was the opening dance for the show, the Shaolin monks' jaws dropped on the floor. They said the what? Dance, so we had to take people who weren't used to counting music and teach them how to dance with music.
Leila: What was the casting process like?
Mark Edward McGuire: The show started with the concept. So as I said, why don't we bring in some acrobats, but not just acrobats, female acrobats, and not just female acrobats, but the more feminine disciplines, the contortion and the aerials? So we have this very masculine Shaolin Kung Fu and on one hand we have this very feminine, unbelievable contortionists and hand balancers to balance the two elements out.
Leila: Is there anything that audiences might not take away or full appreciate because of cultural differences?
Mark Edward McGuire: We want to give them something different from this ancient culture. Yeah, okay, you know about beef with broccoli, but you don't really have any insight into where they come from. If we can present these cultural icons and these cultural traditions within this very entertaining context, people go away entertained and I think they go away appreciating that culture a little bit more.
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