Six Degrees 六度

刑亮的六度

11.12.2010

Xing's works are known to be generally abstract, for this reason I have done a little research before watching Six Degrees. “ Dance needs not to be understood, you interpret it in your own little way based on how you feel.” said Xing Liang. I was enlightened by this theory, as I have been working so hard on analyzing a work technically without realizing I have eliminated all the possible imagination which is strongly discouraged in appreciation of Art. It was my very first time not to take any notes while I was watching, just let myself to be soaked in his Six Degrees.

“Six Degrees” is an airy and imaginative title, so what are “Six Degrees” exactly? “The Chinese title Six Degrees(“ Liu Du”) originally refers to the Six Paramitas of Buddhism. The word “du” means “Crossing to Enlightenment”. When it is in terms of Taoism, it means north, east, south, heaven(up) and earth(down).” by Lin Kehuan. However, Xing is not intended to put too much academic knowledge into the context, instead he would like to introduce a new dance theory to the audience the dancers and himself in terms of space, timing and relationships between dancer themselves and relationships between dancers and the physical setting. The subject matter of this work is to create a new “Six Degrees” for the Dance universe.

In the whole night, the stage effect impressed me most, the lighting, music and the movements. Everything is working together to create the bizarre chemistry, it is unfair to just focus on one particular thing. Every single thing is interrelated to each other and it is not possible to separate them. Six Degrees demonstrated the various ways we can play with on the stage from level to level. I particular appreciate the idea about the gender of the dancers, which were expressed through trios, duets, and solos in the opening. In those dance movements, there were no such obvious subject matter but the interrelationships among the performers. Both genders shared the strength equally at the beginning to try to crack the gender issue in performing arts, somehow they worked against tradition, like the females lifted up males instead. But still, males can do much more strength-driven movements physically compared to females. I am guessing it is something Xing agrees it is no easy matter to break the limitation.

I have to admit I was rather confused at first, having said that it is not wise to put too much things on the stage at the same time in which the audience can easily lose the track. However, I started to realize what Xing really wanted to convey later on. The dancers performed in a strong dynamics juxtaposed with strange and irregular echo, in such a way, the contrast made the busyness and the madness on the stage even more stand out- the emotions and the relationships of the dancers were accented.

Apart from relationships between dancers, Xing also played with the relationship between timing and movements. There was a scene that different dancers possessed their own little path and they travelled back and fro with repeating series of actions. As the time moved on, the music accelerated as well as the dancers, eventually they could not catch up the speed and collapse down. It was like running on a on going treadmill, but the physical speed is one of the human restriction which cannot be easily exceeded.

Besides, Xing also added projection on the back to emphasize the sense of space by showing the pictures and the clips about galaxies and universe. And the piece was ended with the black hole shown on the poster to suggest mystery of the blackhole in the universe. No one actually knows what exactly are in the blackhole, just like dance. You will never know how it will turn out unless you explore it. The blackhole completed the whole meaning of the dance, the question in my mind. Somehow the answer is embraced in the question and we have to dig the key back out from the inquisition.

All in all, Six Degrees illustrated Xing's main philosophy which is dance should be created for the sake of dance instead of expressing a story, or a meaning. Meanwhile, Xing experimented diverse ways to break through the human limits and hence the limits between mortal and immortal. This work has brought us an influential impact on choreography as it reminded us what dance means to us when we think back to basics, like what else we can do with the dancer on the stage and what we should work hard on to smash the restrictions. After all, Six Degrees is an inspiring and interesting masterpiece.

匯 Convergence

27.11.2010

HKAPA

Convergence is a collage composed by 8 different choreographers from 6 various countries. They collaborated to share their philosophies with the audience and bring the compact to the culture. It consists of six extracts which are not related in term of storyline but they are closely related in terms of the subject matter – Culture Convergence.

It started with “On second Thoughts”, which is choreographed and performed by John UTANS and JIA Dong Lin. They come from different backgrounds, but they shared the same belief – idea of time, memory and journey. They use time to reveal time by exploring their pasts. The theme is emphasized by various elements, projection of some memory fragments, lighting tone, movements and the props. The use of yellowish lighting is worth complimented as it strengthened sense of the past. It worked with the contrast in dynamics to suggest the youth and old. Besides, the moment when they traveled backward diagonally together may imply revisiting their memories together and sharing the same belief. Towards the end of this dance, it was highlighted by the poem presented by JIA. The words were not the spotlight, but the sound effect created was. It nourished the audience with the sense of sorrowful beauty.

Then it was followed by a solo, “to be or not to be” extracted from “Endorphin” by WU Chun Hsien. This solo is about facing the struggles and hesitations while pursuing the happiness and this was performed by Photini Meletiadis from Company Double C. The idea of happiness is highlighted by the colorful long dress all the way in the dance. In this extract, the solo was performed on a bare stage with yellowish light tone. The dancer touched the audience with her face and struggling gestures which helped the lots understand the whole picture pretty much.

The third dance is a pure personal work choreographed and performed by SONG Nan. It bascially depicted the the living scenes of a day in Poland from dawn to night abstractly. Song played with the lighting to reflect the timing, like dim yellow lighting tone could suggest the dawn. Plus, he picked the polish music and some polish dance features to highlight the polish culture. For instance, the repetitive dance steps, folk dance features and acceleration in music as well as the movements. Those elements worked together to express the lighthearted emotion during his traveling. In contrast, the use of Chinese character projection could imply choreographer's interpretation of Polish people and culture. I have to admit it might not be a wise choice if he intended to deliver his theory to the audience through the words. Because there were quite a few non-chinese audience who would not be able to understand the meaning in this way. However, the overall stage effect was rather impressive.

Just before the break, 27 scenes was presented. It was the most absorbing and exciting piece in the entire night. The performance by three dancers were extraordinary and highly appreciated. They demonstrated the little insanity and disorders within human being exceptionally well. The choreographers have achieved the sense of madness by mixing all sorts of elements on the stage. Everything was controlly out of control. It is rather dangerous to put too much things on the stage as it can easily go wrong and make it too confusing for the audience and finally fail to deliver the core message. Amazingly, there were no awkwardness nor focus problem. The whole thing just worked! The most impressive part is that when three dancers were packed together with somebody else's hand covered, they they started to sing and walk in a circle to create mad world, everything is distorted and lost in their own way. The physical setting and use of vocal reminded me of “Strange Fish” by DV8 Physical Theatre at first as they both worked on a similar subject matter- Insanity. However, 27 scenes is a masterpiece in terms of aesthetics and intrinsics.

After the intermission, it's followed by Farewell, my concubine!-The movement of Martyr, choreographed by LEE Swee Seng. It is a classic tale which displays the intricate affection between Kiang Yu and Yu Ji, his concubine. The couple chose to end their lives in a magnificent but tragic way to signify their intense devotion to each other and their land. The extract piece has strong Martial Art influence which is highly encouraged as it fulfilled the idea of “Contemporary Dance” - AT the time of the Place. Frequently, the local modern dance works have considerably strong American or English influences. The Hong Kong choreographers seemed to be struggling to establish our own style. Until recent years, the appearance of Chinese dance gestures in modern dance work marked the breakthrough in establishing our own distinctive style. In this work, it is clearly two male dancers have been under strict and decent training both in Martial Art and contemporary dance. Their techniques were absolutely superb and splendid that they expressed the passion perfectly. I was extremely impressed by their strength, the sounds they made with their swords plucked my heart and I have no doubts with their effort on Martial Art and Dance. They could not be more appropriate choices for this choreography.

The last scene is Galatea and Pygmalion choreographed by WONG Tan Ki and LI Sze Yeung Justyne. First of all, I was attracted by the storyline, wonderful but sorrowful. The story is about a love between a human and an undying sculpture. So...mortal or immortal? This question is accented by the use of Philip Glass' music which is minimalistic and repetitive. The music power made the movements looped in my minds for days and I have to confess how much I have enlightened by this work which led me to understand the actual meaning of being alive and how to enjoy our only-once-life. We will never be alone as long as we still in flesh and blood, but we will find everything tasteless when our lives become infinite. The story made me realize how unwise it is to pursue eternity.