Reshaping Identity GuoGuoHuiHui
Choreography Guo
Rui Dancers Chen Yijie, Wang Huaili, Wu Hui, Gunika Aniwa, Guo Rui
Producer/Tour Manager Ning-dan Zhu Costumes Wu Hui Music
Assistant Simon Bishop Lighting Designer and Technician Shee Hoe
Low Sound Technician Qingge Wen Stage Manager Shiny Yu Trailer
Shuangqi Images Shenzhen Fringe Festival. The Space.
AdelaideFestival Centre. Adelaide Festival Sat 28 February - Monday 2 March Note: Performed in Mandarin with
English surtitles
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
Five dancers stand as
living sculptures in the space. Each is distinctive in their costume and still pose.
The shoulders jerk slightly and the body responds limb by limb, muscle by
muscle until the entire body is in motion to a percussive sound track. Each
dancer is rooted to the spot, each part of the body in a singular expression of
the body’s impulsive response to the music. They are connected to the earth,
each part of the body moving through the air until the rhythm builds, the dance
courses through the movements. Each dancer reveals their singular movement
through the upper body and the arms and to the trunk still rooted to the
ground. Each gesture of the individual dance pattern is mesmerizing, unique and
charismatic. Glimpses of traditional dance are captured in the gesture of the
arms, the positioning of the hips, the rapid movement of the hands and the
fixed feature of the face. It is recognizable and yet different as though the
past is being channeled through the new language of contemporary dance.
The music changes and the
dancers are released from their position, embracing the space and yet retaining
the singular identity of each dancer’s movements until they blend into the
unison of movement, circular and fusing individuality into a hypnotic
expression of unified dance. The dance is mesmerizing, and celebratory of each
dancer’s sense of joy. There is a freedom even in the unification of their
movement. The rhythm to the music is liberating. Glimpses of folk dancing are
captured in a moment and a movement and yet it is instantly modern, re-invented
and re-shaped. Even in unison there is an individuality to each dancer’s
movement. And in an instant the each dancer peels off from the circle to leave
a solitary dancer on the stage.
The five dancers of GuoGuoHuiHui
come from the different ethnic backgrounds of Tibet Yao,Uyghur and Han.
Choreographer Guo Rui explains to the
audience how his vision was to incorporate the traditions of the past into a
new contemporary style of dance that would reshape both past traditions and the
identity of the dance, using dancers from different ethnic and cultural
backgrounds. Each dancer has a story to tell of their past life, the influences
which have shaped who they are and their embrace of a new dance form. Chen
Yijie begins the story of her journey as the other dancers enter and create a
moving accompaniment to her narration. Translation from the Mandarin appears on
the curtain at the rear of the stage. Between each dancer’s story there is a
subtle choreographic movement of the group. Each individual merges into the
group in a symphony of story and dance. Wang Huaili, Wu Hui and Gunika Aniwa
all relate the very different backgrounds and life experiences but the dance is
a celebration of new life, mercurial and dynamic.
As the stories come to an
end Guo Rui incites a ritualist call that stirs the tempo of the dance.
Accompanied by a furious percussive beat and costumed in Wu Hui’s fluorescent design
the tempo of the dance builds to a ritualistic tribal movement accompanied by
Guo Rui’s vocal incantation. It is primeval, Dionysian. The sculptural patterns
of earlier slow movements are abandoned to the frenzied chants that build as a
cathartic dance. Tradition has informed a new dance, a contemporary image of a
re-shaped identity. I am left wondering whether this final dance of abandonment
is a sacrifice of the unique identity that entranced me in the opening
movements of the show.
However one may interpret
the closing group ritual, Guo Guo Hui Hui offers an exciting insight
into a new vision of contemporary dance in China. The identity of folk
traditions becomes a powerful tool for the creation of a new dance style that
does not abandon the past, but reshapes
it to evoke a different view of the world and one’s place within it. This
beautifully staged example of the emerging new wave of contemporary dance in
China surprises and delights. The choreography is mesmerizing, the dancers
highly disciplined and skilled and I leave the Space Theatre buoyed up by the
company’s optimism and hope. It is unfortunate that this Adelaide Festival
exclusive will not be seen by other audiences. One can only hope that this
young and dynamic company will return. If they do, don’t miss the opportunity
to see their work.
Photos by Andrew Beveridge
