The teenage years are often angst-filled, what with growth spurts, raging hormones and the search for identity — and the outlook can seem bleak one day and sun-filled the next. That pretty much sums up the two parts of Cloud Gate 2’s (雲門2) Spring Riot 2014 at Taipei’s Novel Hall.
Bleakness was the order of the day for part one, which ran from April 17 to April 20. By the end of the three-hour show both dancers and audience were exhausted.
The first piece was new artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung’s (鄭宗龍) Dorian Gray (杜連魁), a narrative-themed dance that is not only very different from his previous works, it is nowhere near as polished. It was a curious mix of East — Taiwanese Beiguan music, some of the costumes, Chinese opera movements — and West — the Oscar Wilde story, music by Beethoven, Camille Saint-Saens, Tom Waits and excerpts from an audiobook in English — that never coalesced, although there were some interesting solos and imagery.
photo Courtesy of Cloud Gate 2
There is a Dorian Gray character and also a dancer who represents the painting (the decay being shown by dripping black ink onto her from above until she is menacing fluid blob), but it was hard to tell who the other dancers were supposed to be. The dance sometimes echoed the storyline, but also appeared to include Cheng’s reactions as he listened to the tale.
The second work, and at 50 minutes the longest, Huang Yi’s (黃翊) Floating Domain (浮動的房間) opened in shadows and just seem to get dimmer. Expanding on his 2010 piece of the same name, it explores the lives of several characters, raising the tension as it goes, though it was often difficult to figure out the connections between the characters.
Is it a dance about the different stages of one person’s life, or were there several individuals’ tales intertwined? The interplay between the men and women began gently, by the end the violence was overt, especially in the duets. Something as innocuous as an old-fashioned telephone became a menacing presence, as its long line was jiggled harder and faster until it became a blur.
photo Courtesy of Cloud Gate 2
EXHAUSTION
I felt exhausted about halfway through Floating Domain and there was a third piece still to come.
The final work, Bulareyaung Pagarlava’s Yaangad (椏幹), incorporated beautifully blended performances — by singer/songwriter Sangpuy Katetepan and cellist — Chen Chu-hui (陳主惠) — with movements based on Western contemporary and Aboriginal dance. Like Cheng’s Dorian Gray, the elements were pleasing individually, but the work dragged and by the time Yang Ling-kai (楊淩凱) was rubbing handfuls of dirt over her chest and legs, it was long past time to call it a night.
photo Courtesy of Cloud Gate 2
Altogether Spring Riot part one hardly seemed the kind of 15th birthday party most troupes would want to throw. Although each show started with a short film of the company members, Cheng, Bula and Huang Yi dancing and goofing around at home and abroad, the film was the only time anyone appeared to be having fun.
However, the dancers were in great form, though I missed Yeh Wen-pang (葉文榜), a mainstay for many years who has left to go freelance.
Dorian Gray, Floating Domain and Yaangad are worth seeing again, but not in a single show, and not before Cheng does some serious revision.
photo Courtesy of Cloud Gate 2
Cloud Gate 2 begins a three-city road tour of the show this weekend in Chupei City, Hsinchu County before moving on to Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung.
OCULUS
Part two of this year’s Spring Riot was a revival of Wu Kuo-chu’s (伍國柱) Oculus (斷章) and last Saturday night’s performance was a striking contrast to part one the previous Saturday.
Oculus is one of my favorite works by any choreographer. It is a terrific mix of solos and ensemble dances, set to an eclectic score that begins with the prelude to George Bizet’s Carmen Suite, segues into his frenetic Farandole from L’arlesienne Suite, switches gears with Franco Battiato’s Voglio Vederti Danzare and Angelo Branduardi’s Alla fiera dell’est, adds some Yiddish with Yaacov Shapiro’s Kinder Jorn and finishes with an excerpt from Pachelbel’s Canon.
There are also long segments of silence in the 70-minute work, when you can hear the squeak of bare flesh on the floor, the dancers’ deep inhales of breath, the thumps of falling bodies.
Oculus is about hope, regret, loss, happiness, frustration, yearning and determination; it is not about beautiful moves or gracefulness.
The first solo — by Lee Yin-ying (李尹櫻), clad only in a pair of red briefs — makes her look as if she is being attacked by hungry fleas as she scratches her legs, arms and chest or rolls on the floor. She is soon joined by the rest of the company, equally bare, and just as antsy.
Though the dancers quickly don a colorful array of everyday street clothing, the rest of the piece is equally tic-filled: shoulders slumped and hands twitching, the dancers scurry on and off, run with hands clasped on either side of the head and mouths agape, or drop repeatedly to the floor. Yet there are moments of tenderness as well, such as the duet between a shy boy and equally shy girl that turns into a fast-paced dance for five couples.
Judging by the shifting sky and clouds in the video projected on the backdrop, the action takes place over the course of single day, although the costuming — and the shower of leaves blown onstage about two-thirds of the way through — hint at the passage of a year. Either way, it is a rollercoaster ride of emotions.
Oculus’ 12 sections show Wu’s command of choreographic structure and his own movement vocabulary, which makes it all the sadder that he died of leukemia in 2006, just two years after completing the piece for the Tanztheatre at Staatstheater Kassel in Germany.
Watching Oculus you cannot help but think of what might have been if Wu had lived longer. His career might have turned out like another Taiwanese who trained at the Folkwangschule in Essen and was influenced by choreographer Pina Bausch — Tanztheater des Staatstheaters Darmstadt artistic director Lin Mei-hong (林美虹), while Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) has often spoken of Wu as a possible heir apparent.
One cannot also help but think that as good as the choreographers Cloud Gate 2 has worked with in recent years are in creating short pieces, none yet appear capable of producing an evening-length work of equal complexity to Oculus.
‘COPPELIA’
Switching genres and cities, Kaohsiung City Ballet’s (KCB, 高雄城市芭蕾舞團) production of Coppelia (柯碧莉亞) at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center was a pleasant surprise on opening night, April 18.
It was the first time I have seen the company use full set pieces — done by designer Wang Chin-fu (王金福) — and Romanian dancer/choreographer Constantin Georgescu, who restaged the ballet, tailored the solos and ensemble dances to match the dancers’ abilities, while still giving them some challenges.
Kenny Wang (王國年) as Franz was very good, with excellent height in his jumps and crisp footwork.
However, Lu Chen-ying (盧蓁瑩) as Swanilda was disappointing, with sloppy footwork in her landings, though some of her missteps could be put down to nerves as she did not seem very confident. Her reaction when she realizes that Franz has become smitten with Coppelia were more of the childish baituo (拜託) foot-stamping variety than that of a jealous lover.
Wang Kuo-chuan (王國權) was fun as a fussy white-wigged Dr Coppelius, while other standouts were Chen Hsin-chin (陳欣琪) — who did not have much to do as the doll Coppelia, but was able to show her skills in her Act III solo — and Wang Siao-fei (王小菲) as the lead village maiden in Act 1 and in her variation in Act III.
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