The mood turned serious with the next piece, Lament, which opened with a film clip of Martha Graham performing her famous solo Lamentation. Set to the music of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, Lament is a beautiful, elegant work that is moving, but not too somber, filled with lots of lovely lifts and a wonderful duet for Sheu and Li. As with their duet in the first piece, Li proved he could more than hold his own with Sheu.
Summer Fantasia appeared to be simply a collection of scenes, funny though it was. It began with Huang proving his acting abilities as he used a blue-and-white striped beach towel as a prop to be a swimmer, a surfer, a catwalk model and even a mermaid. As a fish-tailed Huang wiggles off, Sheu, wearing trainers and a sports bra, jogs on, watched by three men, clad in brightly colored shirts and black pants. Sheu next returns clad in a loose yellow sundress to play at being a femme fatale for her male harem, before they all strip down to bathing suits. The music ranges from a Maria Callas aria to Dean Martin and the piece ends with a dance party reminiscent of the Beach Blanket Bingo films of the early 1960s.
Summer Fantasia left the audience in a good mood, but it was the haunting Lament that I would most like to see again.
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