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Storytelling and dance performed at a whole new level
Li Chiao Ping Dance Company takes the stage
By Matthew Gillespie
The breathy free-falls and lifts executed by the company looked effortless and were catchy to the viewer’s eyes.
“Laughing Bodies, Dancing Minds” was the title of the dance program he Li Chiao Ping Dance Company performed this past Friday night at Danceworks. Though some parts of Ping’s “Laughing Bodies” program lagged, the night did manage to feature some excellent storytelling and modern choreography.
The choreography presented by the company was postmodern, with a mix of ballet and jazz styles. The breathy free-falls and lifts executed by the company looked effortless and were catchy to the viewers’ eyes.
Though the opening piece by the company was weak, when Li Chiao Ping, artistic director, took the stage, I felt the night truly began.
Li Chiao Ping’s first solo piece, “Lines”, used repetitious movements along with storytelling that was very enjoyable. Ping’s autobiographical tale was about how she used to be a math major in college and dreamt late at night that different math symbols looked like dancer’s bodies. As she moved her body into each symbol out I couldn’t help but chuckle at how right she was regarding this discovery.
Ping’s voice carried into the audience well and she had excellent diction. The piece lightened up the evening, and the audience was easily able to connect to her story.
The two short dance movies shown, directed by Douglas Rosenberg, represented good ideas, but failed to keep the audience’s attention. The movies were site-specific dance works, with dancers of many different ages, performing movement in the forest. The movements and creativity in the film were enjoyable, but the order of scenes was confusing and both films did not seem complete.
The most exciting work of the night came from Ping later into the concert. Her odd solo, “Ba Ba” opened with electronic music by Matan Rubinstein and Ping making high-pitched noises with her throat. At first I thought the noises were a part of the music being played.
She carried a long piece of cloth onto stage that she later used in the dance as a metaphor for the piece’s story. The themes of reality and accepting others were carried well by Ping in this piece. Even Ping’s flawless handstand was impressive, considering she has undergone nine surgeries to recover from a recent car accident that injured her hands and feet.
After Ping left the stage, a second dancer took part in the piece and told the audience of her struggle living under her father’s shadow. Her father was a Catholic priest. The struggle, she explained, of being forced to practice the religious beliefs she learned as a child, was very intriguing to hear about. She also added a nice motif in the dance by using the same long cloth Ping had used in her story.
“Laughing Bodies” closed the program with two works that were chalk full of gutsy emotionalism and fluid impact movement. The company’s way of blending spoken word life experiences into text and movement was daring and beautiful.
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