{"id":261,"date":"2013-12-09T14:19:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T18:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jampole.com\/OpEdgy\/?p=261"},"modified":"2013-12-09T14:29:08","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T18:29:08","slug":"dance-flourishes-in-philadelphia-kun-yang-lin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jampole.com\/OpEdgy\/?p=261","title":{"rendered":"Dance Flourishes in Philadelphia: Kun-Yang Lin"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Juliet Neidish<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Kun-Yang Lin\u2019s dance career spans decades and has been recognized by awards and grants both in his homeland, Taiwan, and in the U.S.\u00a0 His choreography has been seen around the world. After joining the dance faculty at Temple University, Kun-Yang Lin made the decision to transfer his company\u2019s base of operations to Philadelphia, facing the challenge of creating a new dance company from the ground up.\u00a0 As it turns out, Mr. Lin has managed to extend his local artistic outreach even beyond the university and his dance company.\u00a0 His CHI Movement Arts Center built from an abandoned warehouse in South Philadelphia is now a thriving multi-purpose studio offering an array of movement classes, studio rental, and performance opportunities, as well as being the training and rehearsal space for his company. Five years is a very short time to develop a strong, cohesive dance company with a significant following.\u00a0 And yet, this is what director Lin has most certainly achieved.<\/p>\n

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\"Liu
Liu Mo in Kun-Yang Lin\u2019s Moon Dance. L. Browning Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kun-Yang Lin\/Dancers (KYL\/D) celebrated its first five years with a retrospective concert presented at the renowned Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia.\u00a0 (November 7-9, 2013)\u00a0 In this concert, the company presented six of Mr. Lin\u2019s works dating from 1993- 2001.\u00a0 Four of these were Philadelphia premieres.\u00a0 The one new piece on the program was choreographed by company member Olive Prince.<\/p>\n

Each of his achievements — full-time university post in dance, active dance company, and community arts center — is a feat in itself in these times of high rents and scant funding for the arts.\u00a0 In fact, the whole notion of the single choreographer dance company, the model that basically served to build the entire genre of American modern dance, has all but disappeared in recent years.\u00a0 It had been the norm for dancers who wanted to start their own companies to teach dance classes in which they honed and then chose their company members while at the same time building up an audience.\u00a0 Having one\u2019s own studio or loft in which to teach, rehearse and perform, made possible the long hours of training and rehearsal process needed to develop and transmit a personal choreographic style.\u00a0\u00a0 Recently, as choreographers have found themselves less able to afford their own studios, they turn to renting space by the hour.\u00a0 With rental rates soaring and a dearth of adequate spaces, choreographic process has been undermined.\u00a0\u00a0 A home for a dance company has become rare, and therefore, so has the institution of the small dance company.\u00a0 At one point, the idea of the \u201cpick-up company\u201d made famous by choreographer David Gordon, was a novelty.\u00a0 But now fewer and fewer choreographers even try to maintain their own company, and must pick their lot of dancers on a per performance basis.\u00a0 Contemporary dance has adapted and good work is still made, rehearsed and performed.\u00a0 Dance alliances and shared performing spaces are beginning to pop up and establish themselves.\u00a0 And as is normal and natural, dance and performance styles are always evolving.\u00a0 However, what does seem like one of the liabilities of making dance today is the challenge for a choreographer to transfer fully his\/her own personal style or nuance to all of the performing dancers.\u00a0 Now dancers come to the work as \u201cready-mades\u201d, or — as Susan Foster once said — paralegals, as opposed to those who historically had the luxury of experiencing ongoing training and molding by the choreographer-director.<\/p>\n

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As Lin has been able to build (rather than dismantle) a company with a home base, what connected all of the pieces in his retrospective, were dancers who were highly fluent in his particular movement style. Nine dancers performed in this concert, many of who were quite young, and yet they all presented Lin\u2019s work with a full understanding of his vision.\u00a0 This was very satisfying. \u00a0Despite differences in age and prior experience, each dancer found a strong personal relationship to the work.\u00a0 And although the work required strong, grounded technique, their technical proficiency alone was not what made this company stand out.\u00a0 It was rather that each dancer in each piece was able to create an invitational entryway into Lin\u2019s poetic dance vision.<\/p>\n

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\"Kun-Yang
Kun-Yang Lin rehearsing The Song that Can\u2019t be Sung. L. Browning Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Except for the sprawling group piece, \u201cShall We…?\u201d (2001), the other choreographies by Lin were solos or duets.\u00a0 Each encapsulated an intriguing snapshot or perhaps, brief poem.\u00a0 While the works were rich and engaging for their abstract movement design, each also hinted at something particular within the realm of human existence.\u00a0 For example, the notion of challenge or fortitude in \u201cButterfly\u201d (2000), or secret tenderness in \u201cThe Song that Can\u2019t be Sung\u201d (1999).\u00a0 The works are portrayed through an interesting use of movement timing. \u00a0There are brief bolts of fast sequences that lead to quieter swells.\u00a0 It is almost as though the quiet movement directs us to follow a trail or trace of the fast segment as it threads into the slower passage.\u00a0 And yet, despite the speed, the dancers were able to articulate the fast movement with a visible precision that normally is not so clearly present at such a fast pace.\u00a0 I soon discovered that like finding the little gift inside a box of Cracker Jack, each piece contained at least one arresting visual feat in the way of a thoroughly unique balance or lift.\u00a0 When least expected, the \u201cAh\u201d moment would crystalize and then immediately go away.\u00a0 Aside from only a mere allusion to a story in each piece, another reason for their poetic quality is that they take place without a traditional beginning, middle, or end.\u00a0 Each seems to begin already in progress and then simply fade out.\u00a0 Mr. Lin\u2019s choice to use strong music, i.e. music that we are always aware of, tends to create a soundscape that envelops the dance.\u00a0 Music is not danced to but lived in.\u00a0 The musical background is an integral part of the vision, as is the lighting by Stephen Petrilli — both elements enhance this mysterious choreographic world.<\/p>\n

I found Ms. Olive\u2019s piece \u201cto dust\u201d (World Premiere), a strong complement to the program.\u00a0 She possesses a marvelous ability to create unusual patterning of the seven dancers as she placed them across the stage.\u00a0 The stage remained alive throughout as asymmetrical patterns kept refiguring.\u00a0 The aesthetically pleasing brown and grey costumes lent a feeling of autumn leaves infused with conversational attitudes expressed through the body language of the dancers.<\/p>\n

The audience at Painted Bride clearly connects deeply with this work.\u00a0 I would be interested in seeing the direction of Mr. Lin\u2019s new work.\u00a0 Since these dancers, new to his older work were so well versed in interpreting it, I can only imagine the synchrony they could have with work made specifically on and for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Juliet Neidish Kun-Yang Lin\u2019s dance career spans decades and has been recognized by awards and grants both in his homeland, Taiwan, and in the U.S.\u00a0 His choreography has been seen around the world. After joining the dance faculty at Temple University, Kun-Yang Lin made the decision to transfer his company\u2019s base of operations to […]<\/p>\n

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