#haoqing

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Phantom Limbs 69ºS

Haoqing（Amber） Shen

Before watching this show, I speculated it would be a dance performing which mainly put emphasize on every parts of dancers’ limbs, maybe showing the strength, flexibility, coordination or other qualities of human body by only looking at the name. Though I didn’t really get the meaning of 69ºS and Phantom. And on Saturday I found my guess was totally in a wrong direction since it didn’t even give much time showing human bodies, instead during a huge part of the show, audiences was implied to focus the limbs and movements of ‘fake people’, the marionettes. 

I was late for several minutes because of some reason and when I entered the theater and crept to my seat, the show seemed to be in crescendo—— the music was intensive and high, and both the video on the screen and the performers movements were telling me that something dangerous or critical was going on. After I took my seat and looked around carefully, I found the sets were really special and this aroused great interest. Except for the screen used to project the background image, there are also three icebergs on the stage. Both of them successfully set up a background of the freezing part of an ocean and I could even feel the coldness dissipated from the stage. And they even had two groups of people on both lower sides of the stage, playing and creating background music and sound effects with musical instruments and some particular tools. This was the first time that I saw a live music in a show and consequently the only feeling I could tell was “ Oh my god this is absolutely so cool! ” Though I knew it would be a bit deafening for the audiences sitting in the front rows. The performers on the stage were all dressed in red jumpsuits and were doing some slow movements such as stretching their body. And then they began to move faster and interact with each other and the music was going higher and louder. The strong drumbeat really made my heart beats faster because of scare and nervousness. I was immediately pulled in to the scene. And there were also great lightings which helped establish the background. Through this I could see how significant the effect could be of other elements could be of a show such as music and background sets. After the red people leapt into the air and some birds flew around on the screen. A wooden boat appeared on the right side of the stage. I guessed this was a lifeboat because from the previous part I could tell that a giant ship got trapped in pack ice and was sink.

Then the major characters of the show finally walked onto the stage. A giant all in white came ‘from the lifeboat’ with a much shorter person move in from of him/her. And then went one, two… six more giants with their ‘partners’. As they slowly moved to the front stage I felt something strange and I didn’t realize the ‘partners’ are puppets until they came to the very front side and a strong light hit on their faces. Then I thought I suddenly got the idea about the meaning of the name of this show. Phantom was performed as the white giants and limbs were those limbs of the puppets controlled by the performers through strings and 69ºS must be the latitude of the place in which the story happened.

The puppets were real people who went to the island after an accident and were not able to return their country. They once acted as they were lost, once sang with joy and enthusiasm. The phantoms just carried the puppets to reproduce the past scene into life. Though their skills controlling the puppets were amazing, I didn’t really admire this part because somehow it went so slowly and did not really effect my emotions. At last they were saved by another ship and everything on the stage disappeared and it returned to the original state as like nothing happened on the piece of land.

However, there was one thing that came into notice. That was the icebergs also disappeared. Are they melted？ And I also noticed that the glaciers background image was also changing. These things reminded me of the environmental problems which people are putting more and more emphasize on these years. Are they trying to imply the global warming issues? I can’t help making this guess. If they were, then this would not be a show which merely intended to commemorate the Shackleton Project and the researchers.

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The Oracle

Haoqing (Amber) Shen

This dance work is a solo dance created by celebrated choreographer Meryl Tankard, featuring the renowned dancer Paul White. This was acknowledged by reading the brochure several minutes before the dance began. And I found that getting a general idea or information about the dance really helped me to enjoy the performance with concentrated attention.

The dance show was started by playing a video clip on the back screen. In the center of the screen there was a nude, expressionless man and I know that he was Paul White. Then his images were cut apart, distorted, rotated and recomposed, accompanied by the background music which was kind of majestic and heart shaking. The video reminds me of kaleidoscope but it didn’t exhibit a riot of color. On the contrary the hue was dark and the split images was absurd and strange—almost all of them were part of the limbs and facial features. Along with the music this video successfully established a nightmarish and surreal effect. And I noticed that some birds and insects were heard in the background music and I thought of the words I’ve read on the brochure ” explores the conflicting force of nature and humankind”. “Does this represent nature?” I asked myself and continued watching the show with some expectation and questions.

The video lasted for about 10 minutes and the whole theater fell into darkness. When the space was lightened up again, the dancer Paul White walked to the center of the stage, with a piece of long, huge black cloth which looks like a cloak on his head, covering his face. He didn’t wear any clothes other than the underwear. I was sure about what the cloak is used for and I speculated this might represent female’s long hair because the introducing paragraph said the dance also explores masculinity and femininity, violence and nurturing, strength and vulnerability. Which greatly reminded me of what we discussed in the class. His body was absolutely full of masculinity. However the combination of the ‘long hair’ and the strong body didn’t bring me any feeling of discord and I found the 2 opposite elements harmoniously embodied by White. His appearance was close to the original, natural human being, without any excess coverings such as clothes. And his body was of high beauty, every muscles on his body looked powerful and elegant. He must be the best person to dance as the oracle, I thought. And he really was, on the stage. He sometimes stretched his body in a leisurely manner, sometimes pretended to comb his ‘long hair’ with hand, sometimes moved with his head shrouded in the cloak and sometimes rolled on the stage. Some sections were acrobatic , for instance at sometime White walked on his hands. No matter what movement he did, everything showed an instinctive power and aesthetic. I exclaimed at the movements designed by Meryl Tankard and also the virtuosity of Paul White.

Besides the dancer and choreographer, there is another person without whom this dance work wouldn’t be such a masterpiece. He is Regis Lansac, the designer of video and set. The video played an important role throughout the dance. The video inserted in the intervals or played along with White’s dancing created an evocative background.

This piece of dance shows the intensity, complexity and power according to the subject. It also exhibits the result of collaborative work with creative and versatile professions. The Oracle was visually and choreographically focused and articulate.

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Studio Dance I

Amber (Haoqing Shen)

I went to watch the Studio Dance performed by the Dance Department of the U of I last week and was impressed by both the choreography and the movements. It included three different dances: The Land, Shake Shake and For(ever). Shake Shake was interesting to me because of the utilization of several reels of paper and a fan and the “background music” created on the stage by the dancers themselves. And the third dance didn’t left a deep impression on me since the almost the only thing I can remember clearly is the screen of icy beach and the sound effect of blowing wind at the beginning. However, I was greatly impressed by the fist dance <The Land> and was my favorite. So I want to discuss my reflections and thoughts upon this one to you.  

The first thought that came into my mind after I went in to the theater and took my seat was “Wow this theater is quite small and the stage is so close to me” as I sat in the first row. I almost immediately got excited of this fact and consequently had more wonderful expectation of this dancing performance.

The stage was decorated in an extremely simple way comparing to those in the other performances I watched before: it consisted of everything dark except for three big，ball-shaped light bulbs. Right after my rough observation of the space all lights were turned off and the room fell into complete darkness. Then, as the three light bulbs slowly illuminated the space， accompanied with a kind of quiet, mysterious music, dancer appeared on the stage and began to move their body. A scene of a peaceful forest with cold moonlight rose in my mind relating to what I saw from the stage. Though I know it was impossible to have three moons hanging in the air, I was still willing to have the romantic imagination, regarding the light bulbs as moons. I felt I was in a different world, apart from the reality.

The dancers were wearing in unique, special, even strange outfits, which reminded me of something natural and they seemed to be divided into two groups by the color. I didn’t really get the idea of the purpose of this arrangement. The dancers sometimes walked separately in different ways, sometimes seemed to be entangled in a lingering manner, sometimes seemed to confront fiercely and vibrantly. Some movements caught my attention especially because they are suggesting some animals to me. For example when they lifted one of their arms and kept the other hands pointing to the ground with hands of a gesture similar to giving the number three without making a circle with the thumbs and fore fingers, move the joints flexibly and agilely and bending their bodies from time to time, the image of birds looking for food on the group occurred in my mind. And their movement also reminded me of peacock dance, which is a totem worshiped by the Dai Minority and is one of the most famous dances among more than fifty minorities in China. They also have some movements which, in my eyes, were imitating preyers and reptiles.

  And there is another point I noticed is that the music, movements and the lighting were going in a gradual process. At first the music is quiet, the movements were gentle, the lights were dim and the space was rather dull. As time went on the music became more and more keyed-up and the dancers are performing in a more and more intense way and the lights are turning more and more bright. When all of them reached the peak, soon after everything just went in reverse and eventually all end in peace. In my speculation I suppose it was flowing with the time which was going from the darkest moment before down, the vibrant middle of the day and finally to the tranquil late night.

  There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. So it applies to dance. I don’t know what the original thought and inspiration of the choreographer were but I still made such opulent association and speculation to this piece of dance. Perhaps I got nothing right, but at least I achieved something from the performance and I pondered.

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Bebe Miller Company: A History

Haoqing Shen (Amber)

I made a mistake when I went to watch the performance that night, which makes the dancing became an inscrutable, unreadable work of art for me in the following thirty minutes from the beginning – almost half of the performance! If I could turn back the clock and am given another chance to watch this performance again, I would make some preparation and get a general idea of the dancing before I go. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t have wasted the valuable thirty minutes! This is a shame of this experience but on the other side, such a shame successfully turn this experience into an unforgettable one.

This is my first time to watch a dancing performance in a theater and this is the first dance I have seen which combined with so many digital media installations. After I took my seat, the first thing that came into my eyes was a screen on the left side of the stage. Several minutes later, the screen began to show a video, which surprised me a little and Bing even whispered in my ear jokingly ”We are not going to watch a dancing on the screen, are we?” I can’t remember what was in the video clearly but one sentence really left me a deep impression since it was repeated again and again “remembering remembering.” In fact since I didn’t know anything about the performance, I was expecting this dancing to show or relate a period of real world history. However I knew that guess was not a nice one as soon as the video began to display on the screen. There was no time for me to form a new conjecture. Shortly after that Darrel made his appearance with a piece of dance, without music. While gasping in admiration at the superb dancing skill and extraordinary physical quality, I was completely bewildered of what he is conveying or trying to display. And then Darrel stopped his movement. Angie came on the stage in the same way. They put on the old fashioned headphones, repeating the words they heard fast and loudly. The screen began to show another clip in which Angie was wandering along a small path in the field and there is a log cabin…I can’t remember what was going on exactly but I can only tell the only feeling I got during the following thirty minutes: confused.

While as more clips was showed on the screen I was able to grasp the general idea of the performance. This show, named A History, is aimed at displaying the preeminent choreographer Bebe Miller’s dance-making history and the experience of making dance with these two gorgeous dancers: Darrel and Angie. I suddenly realized what were they doing, talking, and listening to. That was the displaying of the dance making process from the internal. I can still remember the clip in which they were lying on a bed, with their headphones on. And then Angie exploded into her speedy monologues (to be honest I failed to catch her words) and began to jump on the bed, Darrel responded by simply rolling of the bed and walked away. This was an interesting scene and I speculated that might be a time when they are struggling to reach an agreement. Their had rich interactions both in the videos and on the stage, at last as is said in the video, their bodies became one and their performance was fused together gradually.

At about the fifty minutes, the music and rhythm was getting stronger and stronger, Angie and Darrel were doing fierce movements and so do they on the screen. I regarded this as the climax of the show and also one of the best moments. The video rang alongside the dancers, but one is the history and the other is at the present, which lead me to look back the past time of my life and sigh with feeling “ Ah, I am eventually here.” This maybe the most precious thing of a performance that it makes you ponder over something.

On the whole this was a memorable experience with certain gain. The ingenious conception, use of the flexibility of digital media, the amazing dancing undoubtly made A History a fantastic dancing show.