Unlike a traditional corps de ballet, which prizes uniformity, these men and women crackle with individuality. Small, tall, slender, or stocky: the company embodies the diversity and vitality of 21st century America. Their uniqueness is united by a performative ferocity that never flags.
The performance came alive with a vivid glitzy golden curtain backdrop, bright costumes matching David Bowie’s signature look for the album and intrinsic moves that moved more modernly. It was quite a fantastic show for sure.
“Feathers of Fire is like nothing we have presented on our stages before,” said Paul Crewes, The Wallis’ Artistic Director. “It is cinematic in size, scale and storytelling. This innovative production mixes projections and animation with live performance in a new and brilliant manner.”
Peter Chiu’s newest work for Hubbard Street Dance liberates the dancers from the stage to the lobby, wings, stairwells, hallways and elevators
I swear you can feel the blood pumping through the dancers — but you also intuit that the forces you’re watching are far larger than anything in your mind’s eye.
That charismatic young ensemble has garnered recognition recently for its remarkable blended sound and musical conviction
Rice, the beautiful story of life, death, and rebirth, was inspired by the story of Chihshang in the East Rift Valley of Taiwan.
“We know that dance happens, but it also vanishes when it happens,” he said. “All we are creating is air. We are giving society a different air, that’s all.”
So it is intriguing to learn that this work, depicting a timeless spiritual quest for “asceticism and quietude”, is a characteristic offering from a company that emerged from one of the most turbulent periods of modern Asian geopolitics.
The music is the first and most direct connection to Bowie, but the tribute is also in the movement. Rhoden’s vocabulary is infused with androgynous and serpentine spines, articulate hips, small and precise hand gestures, large sweeping lines of the arms, unorthodox head movements, sinewy walks and forced arches.
