Roy Berko
(Member, Dance Critics Association)
Cleveland has no professional ballet company, but there is an
abundance of local modern and contemporary dance troupes. One of these, Verb Ballets, which
recently announced that it was becoming the resident dance company at the Breen
Center on the campus of St. Ignatius High School, presented EXPLORE DISCOVER,
an evening of original works, to an appreciative sold out house.
EXPLORE DISCOVER featured the creations of Taiwanese choreographer
Chung-Fu Chang. Chang, who
performed with the Cloudgate Dance Theatre and Kaohsiung Contemporary Dance
Company in his native land, was in residence with Verb this winter to work on his
new company piece, as well as refine a piece he previously developed for Verb.
Last year, Chang choreographed THE LILY. His latest work, BORROWING WINDS, is a fusion of Asian and
Western concepts, centering on the wind.
He believes the breeze has “dynamics, path, speed, shape, and ultimately
emotion,” which can come alive on stage through conceived choreography. He views the stage, “as a canvas,
a space to explore.”
Deeply immersed in a rich Taiwanese-Chinese cultural heritage, which “is
poetic, ritualistic, theatrical and profoundly spiritual,” Chang is motivated
to broaden his creative horizons by directly connecting his culture with
Western dance traditions.
Watching Chang during a company rehearsal, it became obvious that he
is well disciplined and expects the same from his dancers. He does not believe in creating dances
through the collaborative process, but, instead, pre-choreographs the numbers
and then teaches the movements to the company. It was obvious that he creates word pictures through
body angles, hand movements, and structural placements.
During the rehearsal, the dancers were relaxed, yet very
involved. They were aware that the
dance language Chang was using was different from that of Western choreographers. To proficiently perform required building a relationship with
Chang based on respect and trust.
Chang continually checked in with the performers, asking “okay” after
he gave directions and made adjustments.
He seemed constantly aware that he needed to adapt the movements to the
company as the dancers’ bodies were not necessarily trained to bend, pose, and
move in the ways of his choreographic language.
It was obvious that the Asian tradition of “face” was in force. The choreographer never yelled, bawled
out, or castigated a dancer, but used courtesy in order for neither to lose
respect. The session ended with
the company bowing to the choreographer.
He responded in kind.
Chang’s solo performance, PHEASANT’S WAITING, was a world premiere. He indicated that it was a
self-exploration for him as a dancer/choreographer. As he indicated during an interview, he “can no longer move
like he did as a twenty-year old and, therefore, had to start a new procedure,
filled with self insecurities, thus slowing down the developmental process.” Besides the dance, Chang, who is a
noted artist, also designed the set, which consisted of slides of his
contemporary paintings, and his costume.
PHEASANT’S WAITING is inspired by one of the poems from Shijing (The Classic of Poetry), one of the great literary works of ancient
China, which is a collection of 305 poems and songs dating from the 10th
to the 7th century.
Using feathers as appendages, Chang flowed with controlled movements to “reveal
secrets, gain identity and find one’s own language.”
Next on the program was FOUR LAST SONGS, a ballet about loss and
longing, also in its world premiere.
Choreographed by Richard Dickinson, to the music of Richard Strauss, the
well received piece, with creative lighting designed by Trad Burns, was
inspired by Herman Hesse and Joseph von Eichendorff’s soul-searching
poetry. The angst-filled dancers’
movements effectively conveyed Strauss’s haunting melodies. A highlight was a Stephanie Krise and
Brian Murphy duet in At Dusk.
THE LILY, using classic choreography, is based on a legend of Baleng
of the Rukai Tribe, one of the native tribes of Taiwan, and set to music by
David Darling and traditional music of the Rukai and Paiwan Tribes. The well danced number was filled with
traditional customs and rituals. The
dancers each performed with a lily held in their mouth. Historically, the lily is noted as a sumbol
of remembrance.
The program concluded with BORROWING WINDS. Chang developed the choreography of the three segments, Cave Of The Winds, Kite, and Pleating Water, by selecting the music
of Ondsekoza, a Japanese tiger drum group, and building images based on their
sounds.
The piece probes into the dichotomy of the wind to be both an immense
destructive power but also has the gentleness to calm one’s soul. Using of flowing fabrics, weightless actions,
and martial arts’ influenced movements, the dancers effectively changed moods, and
created an investigation of the ever altering powers of the wind. Visual illusions of the after effect of
the wind, the confronting of the natural phenomena, the taking on of the
various forms of and the ever presence of wind, are all represented.
Chang indicated that the inspiration for BORROWING WINDS came from
his 2011 visit to Cleveland when he become aware of how windy it is here.
Besides Krise and Murray, the evening’s highlight performances were
presented by Kara Madden, Leslie J. Miller, and Ryan DeAlexandro.
Capsule judgement: EXPLORE DISCOVER, Verb Ballet’s Winter, 2013 series, was highlighted
by the exciting works of Chung-Fu Chang and Richard Dickinson. It was a wonderful illumination of western
and eastern modern and balletic dance.
Next up for Verb:
MARCH 21- 23, 2013 7:00pm
Verb Goes Electric with the
Cleveland Chamber Symphony
Cleveland Public Theatre DanceWorks
Series
APRIL 18-20, 2013 7:00pm
Rite of Spring: The Bride
Unseen
Cleveland Public
Theatre DanceWorks Series
For information go to: verbballets.org
or call 216-397-3757.
