Review-Rice-New Vision Arts Festival
8-11-14
By: Meaghan McGurgan
Cloud Gate is known as one of the most prolific modern dance companies in Asia. I had the pleasure of seeing them a few years ago at the Hong Kong Arts Festival when they performed Legend of White Snake. They’re known for three particular things: a fusion of modern dance with martial arts, a blending of slow, extended movement with frenetic energy and a unique voice that tells Chinese stories in a new way.
Rice is about an hour and ten minutes and is all about rice culture and the growing of rice in an organic field. Now, I’m not that crazy about rice, so I was a bit hesitant to think if I could really understand or appreciate a whole hour dedicated to the seed of the Oryza plant. But I figured if anyone could make me appreciate it, it would be Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.
This piece kind of reminded me of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Both move through periods and stages of the natural cycles. With Rice, we went through photosynthesis on stage including: Soil, Wing, Pollination, Sunlight, Grain, Fire and Water. A blending of traditional Hakka songs with classical music formed the soundtrack for the evening.
The show is technically very good. The dancers are sensational. The female dancers impressed more than the men. Their expressions solidify their characters more to the audience, their extensions are stronger and the form of their gestures overall more pleasing to watch.
Something that might have been helpful for an audience not fully aware of rice culture is placards or wording in the video, so we could be reminded what stage we were in. I would sometimes get confused as to what part of the growing process the dancers were supposed to be. It would help us understand the intentions of the dancers better and would keep people from whipping out their cellphones to light up their program, thus breaking the moment for everyone around them. (IE- The person on the same row as me. HOW RUDE!)
Lin Hwai-min’s choreography is always a pleasure to watch. It is a mixture of traditional modern dance with an Asian inspired twist. They opened the show incredibly strong and played with the concept of silence on stage while they danced. Their breath and steps were perfectly in sync which led to a great opening that captivated the audience from the beginning. This use of asymmetrical staging, cannons and unified breath established from the outset an intensity which made you want to keep watching.
Unfortunately, that intensity tapered off part way through the show - somewhere around the part where the girls were rolling on the floor shaking and writhing giving birth to baby rice.
Cloud Gate’s Rice is a good show by a phenomenal choreographer. If you haven’t had a chance to see his work before and love dance, I highly recommend you check it out this weekend. If you’ve seen his work before and loved White Snake, Occulus 2 or Legends then maybe skip this one… It’s good but lacks the continuous energy building and vigour that I’ve come to know from Lin Hwai-min’s work.
Rice is playing at the Cultural Center through Sunday. For more information, click here.
Comments
Laura
Whatever ass rated this show one star must be blind.
08 November 2014