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How Full?

Li Chiao-Ping Dance
Millennium Stage
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC, USA
July 26, 2004

by George Jackson
copyright © 2004 by George Jackson
published August 2, 2004

Some people may have seen in Li Chiao-Ping a stereotype, while others seem to have spotted a seeker, a visionary, a promising choreographer. For the former, there was vagueness—whether that hand stand was action or pose, that glance a part of the choreographic text or a performer's cue and, worst of all, the purpose of the dancing, remained for them elusive. Also of no help were the heavy bodies (4 of the 6 dancers) and the single sex world (all female). On the other hand, optimists in the audience appreciated Li Chiao-Ping's persistence in perfecting her images. She repeated favorite moves—knee balances, upthrusts, bendovers—not for recapitulation's sake but to experience them fully and get them right.

In "Untitled", the first of her 3 pieces, there was a sense of using her dance vocabulary as calligraphy. The performers moved with great independence of each other. Only on occasion were some in unison, and none ever touched. Such isolation, subtlely enhanced by Claude Heintz's lighting and the conservatism in color and cut of Douglas Rosenberg's bathing suit costumes, suggested brushstrokes on a uniform ground. Passages of minimotion, such as the side-to-side pendulation of heads, against the bolder moves and Forrest Fang's gently percussive music also made watching "Untitled" akin to the experience of unrolling an unfamiliar scroll.

"Hold", Li Chiao-Ping's solo for herself, isn't just persistent but obstinate. It begins in silence with a long backview of her. She is standing in her turned away position, knock-kneed and bent over so that everything above the waist is hidden from view except her left arm which moves out from behind the torso. The left hand begins to grope the air and forms into a claw. As silence is replaced by sound, the dancer pursues active balances, body coils and other calisthenics. Her final squatting balance is a feat of duration.

"Passiflora gracilis", for 6 dancers and presumably named for a species of flowering plant, magnifies the concerns of the solo. There are balancings, coilings, backside views, hand stands, tumbles in many repetitions. Because there is some partnering and everything is dark (much shadow, black costuming), no calligraphic effect emerges. There's a very fast section in which the otherwise careful dancing becomes sloppy.

The solo and this last piece are part of Li Chiao-Ping's "Bach Project". The music isn't actually J.S. Bach's but by Darryl Harper (for "Hold") and Stephen Vitiello (for the plant piece) based on Bach. As a choreographer otherwise attuned to her music, Li Chiao-Ping has trouble conveying pauses as opposed to endings -- except for the final moment of "Passiflora gracilis" in which one dancer clambers up on the others and then falls into their arms.

Originally published:
www.danceviewtimes.com
Volume 2, No. 29
August 2, 2004
Copyright ©2004 by George Jackson