Oberon's Grove (written by Philip Gardner)
| Photo by James Wagner |
Sunday April 6th, 2013 matinee - At Peridance today, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company presented the second of tw
o performances of WHIRLWIND,
a gorgeous dancework inspired by Nai-Ni's personal journey along the
Silk Road. Delving into the ancient mysteries of the old Asiatic
cultures, Nai-Ni Chen seeks to transport us out of the driven, jangling
clamour of modern life and to ponder the simplicity and spiritual
richness of another place and time. To accomplish this, Nai-Ni asks her
dancers - steeped in contemporary modes of movement and expression - to
find the bridge across centuries and cultures and bring us a vision of
another place and time: half-a-world and hundreds of years away.
Whirlwind, a desert phenomenon arising from the meeting of air currents
flowing in opposite directions, here becomes a metaphor for the meeting
of Asian and European cultures which took place along the legendary Silk
Road.
Opening with the dancers standing in stillness, WHIRLWIND
is from start to finish greatly enhanced by its lighting (Carrie Wood)
and costuming (Anna-Alisa Belous)...and some richly-textured
projections (Jayanthi Moorthy) in Part II. Composer Glen Velez has
created a magical tapestry of sound, evoking the Eastern realms with
music that is at once seductive and soulful: swaying rhythms, delicate
dreamlike themes, mystic chanting, bursts of dynamic - almost primitive -
energy. At times, the dancers are called upon to participate vocally,
recalling for me an early rehearsal I attended
where the composer was teaching them their rhythmic patterns. (The
roster of dancers is quite different now from that day in 2011.)
In this musical and visual setting, it's the dancers who transform
this history lesson/travel diary into an immediate and marvelous
contemporary dance experience. There are eight dancers in the Company
but such are the shifting patterns of this well-constructed work that we
sometimes have the illusion of a much larger number of people moving in
the space. The boys are bare-chested, the women in gossamer trousers in
subdued earthtones. From the moment they break out of their initial
solemn pose, these remarkable dancers bring passionate commitment to
every move.
WHIRLWIND unfolds in two sections with a brief pause
between. Sweeping us along in movement that veers from meditative to
fiercely athletic, the dancers delve into the choreographic richness
with great technical assurance and boundless individual charisma. Of the
current troupe, only Ekaterina Chernikhova and Jung Hm Jo are familiar
to me from the Company's previous performances though I know Greta Campo
from her work with choreographer Danielle Schulz.
Ensemble passages flow freely into smaller movement modules; there
are numerous solos (everyone has ample opportunity to shine), and there
are some beautiful partnering passages, notable a spotlit duet for
Ekaterina with Daniel Johnson set to a deep, earthy chant. Rituals are
evoked, and there's a male quartet expressing both brotherhood and hints
of the combative. An entree with the girls in high lifts makes
a stunning impression - something to savour visually - but the music
and dance surge ever onward.
Along with Ekaterina and Greta, Eun Kyung Hong and Sabrina Jaafar
made beautiful impressions every moment they were onstage. The fluent
power and grace of the four well-contrasted male dancers - Jung Hm Jo,
James Johnson, Daniel Johnson and Yoo Sik Kim - continually thrilled us
with their effortless athleticism and magnetic personalities. With great
generosity of spirit, these eight dancers made the afternoon a
thoroughly satisfying experience.
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