Ms. Butterfly --- Production Credits

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Dr. Dennis Law retired from a career as a well-known surgeon in Denver, Colorado in 2001.  A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he practiced for twenty years and held an academic appointment as Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. 

Dr. Law’s career in entertainment started with the production of Warriors of Virtue in 1996, a US$30 million family feature film distributed by MGM in the United States, and by Warner Brothers and Columbia Artists worldwide.  In China, Dr. Law also later produced a prize-winning CCTV children’s film, Xiwa, as well as the acclaimed television series, April Rhapsody.

After the acquisition of The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts in 2002, a state-of-the-art Broadway theater in Canada, Dr. Law became the CEO and President of The Centre and its associated production company, Sight, Sound & Action.  To support his unique productions of “Action-Musicals”, he founded Law Brothers Chinese Performing Arts International in Beijing. 

Dr. Law has written, produced and directed a large number of important musical theater productions including Of Heaven & Hearth, Terracotta Warriors, Senses, Heartbeat, Tang Concubines, Phoenixia, Heartbeat Hawaii, Monkey King and Senses-Las Vegas Ed. & Terracotta Warriors 3D.  These works have been performed nearly a thousand times in major venues of many cities in North America and China – a feat that is without equal in the history of Chinese performing arts.  In 2005, Dr. Law was nominated for a Toronto Dora Award for Best Direction of a Musical (Heartbeat).  In addition, Sight, Sound & Action garnered a total of seven Dora nominations and three Dora awards.  In 2011, Monkey Kingbecame the first theatrical work ever to be produced as a 3-D high-definition large screen digital movie, and in 2012 won the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the first Korean 3D Film Festival and also the 3D Gold Award from The Prestige Film Award of California.  In 2014, Dr. Law produced and directed Terracotta Warriors 3Das the world’s first 3D theatrical stage show, and in 2015, another world’ first was accomplished when this musical was successfully shot and produced into the first 3D Blue-Ray DVD of a live 3D show. 

Ode to Nature, a new “theatrical symphonic poem”, was Dr. Law and Sight, Sound & Action newest production in 2016 and marks the beginning of his relationship with the University of Denver.  In the fall of 2017, the Dennis K. Law Foundation granted a gift and a bequest to the University of Denver to create the perpetual Joseph & Loretta Law Institute for Arts and Technology.  Dr. Law is currently the Founder of the Law Institute of Arts and Technology and is Chairman of the annual Denver International Festival of Arts & Technology.

Zhou Jiaojiao received her undergraduate degree from the prestigious China Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing in music composition and electone performance and then became the youngest student to receive her doctoral degree for composition.  Known for her diverse compositional skills in symphonic, Chinese instrumental and electronic music, Ms. Zhou is a highly sought-after composer for works of musical theater and cinema.  

Ms. Zhou has received many awards for her compositions for several important music festivals, including Beijing’s “Musicaccoustica”.  She has been awarded special scholarships for the study of electronic music in Germany and France, the latter being in 2008 sponsored by UNESCO of the United Nations. In 2011 and 2012, Zhou Jiaojiao was a Visiting Scholar from China to UCLA’s Visual Media Center for the study of music composition for film and video entertainment.  

Zhou Jiaojiao is currently the Music Director of the Law Institute of Arts and Technology as well as its Resident Artist. She is also a Lecturer for Music Composition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.  

Recently named as Music Director of the North America New Opera Workshops, dynamic conductor Chaowen Ting is founder and Music Director of Café Momus Contemporary Music Ensemble.  She also serves as Conductor of the Georgia Tech Symphony Orchestra.  A protégé of Bernard Haitink, Ting studied with the maestro at Lucerne Festival and was later invited to observe the Maestro’s work with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Dr. Ting serves as conductor for the ensemble for Ms. Butterfly, a festival opening world premiere for the 2019 Denver International Festival of Arts & Technology.

Ah Kuan is one of China’s most notable and prolific costume designers for the theatrical stage.  Recognized for designing costumes for over a hundred productions of theater and film, he has been touted for his designs for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.  He is highly sought after in China, winning more awards than can be justly recognized in this setting.  Ah Kuan has also been the costume designer for four Action-Musicals by Sight, Sound & Action, Heartbeat Hawaii, Monkey King, Senses(Las Vegas edition) and Terracotta Warriors 3D.  For his unique designs for Monkey King, Ah Kuan won a nomination for the 2010 Toronto Dora Award for Best Costume Design, an uncommon recognition for a Chinese artist in North America.  Ah Kuan designed the costumes for the “theatrical symphonic poem”, Ode to Nature, world premiered at the Newman Center for Performing Arts in October of 2016 as well as for War & Peacein February of 2018.  He is now the Resident Artist for Costume Design at the Law Institute of Arts and Technology.

Born in 1983, Mr. Jia has become one of China’s most decorated theatrical makeup designers.  He has served as Makeup Art Director for over thirty dance dramas, tens of musicals, six acrobatic circuses and more than ten large-scale tourist galas. In addition to this large body of work, Jia Lei has won numerous accolades, including “China’s Top Ten Makeup Art Directors” in 2003 and “Asia’s Top 100 Makeup Designers” in 2004.  In 2008, he was the Makeup Art Director for both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Paralympic Games. In 2010, he was in charge of all makeup art direction for the opening ceremonies of the Guangzhou Asian Games and was designer-in-charge for the Shanghai World Expo show segment, “The Attraction of Beijing”.  For Sight, Sound & Action, Jia Lei created spectacular and revolutionary makeup and body-painting designs for the show, Senses – Las Vegasin 2012.  Recently, Jia Lei has won multiple awards from the Chinese Ministry of Culture for outstanding Makeup Design.  Mr. Jia also created the makeup designs for the performances of Ode to Nature at the Newman Center of the University of Denver in October of 2016.  He is currently the Resident Artist for Makeup Design at the Law Institute of Arts and Technology.

Having choreographed nearly 60 works over the past sixteen years, Ammon has developed a trademark aesthetic that seamlessly blends tradition with adventurous new ideas. He keeps Wonderbound continually engaged in collaborative endeavors with the region’s finest arts organizations including Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Central City Opera, the Colorado Symphony, Curious Theatre Company, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Mizel Arts & Culture Center, and Newman Center Presents among many others.

In addition, Ammon’s deep belief in the value of live music as an integral part of the dance experience keeps Wonderbound actively creating with a wide range of independent musicians and composers like Hal Aqua and The Lost Tribe, Ofer Ben-Amots, Chimney Choir, Confluence String Quartet, Ian Cooke Band, Tom Hagerman, Jesse Manley and His Band, and Paper Bird.

As a dancer, Ammon was a member of Houston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Memphis and Trey McIntyre Project where he toured to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Vail International Dance Festival, HIDC’s Dance Salad and Wolf Trap.