Wifi Body @ Greenbelt

The UP Dance Company

I rarely go to Greenbelt 5 where a lot of beautiful people shop and dine since the price of stuff there are insanely not beautiful. But I still ended up there since wanted to catch the first offering of the Wifi Body 5 Independent Contemporary Dance Frestival. I've seen one of their shows during last year's edition and I was curious to see what they had to offer this year.

A bare stage was set up just outside the posh mall and it was so bare that most people probably had no idea what it was for. In fact right before the show started, not a lot of people were there waiting for the action to start. But when the costumed dancers finally appeared, curious shoppers and passersby stopped and decided to see what was happening there.

The show which lasted just about an hour featured the Lyceum Dance Troupe, UP Dance Company, Airdance and St. Benilde Romancon Dance Co. There was someone who did some yoyo exhibition at the beginning and also a guy who did a solo but I failed to get their names. And there were also performance artists who did their thing at the second floor overlooking the stage. Again, I failed to note who they are.

The music used ranging from Bach to Owl City was appealing to a wide variety of audiences and the performances were indeed visually arresting since a lot of people did stay for a while and watch the performances. Most of the performances were indeed comfortable and pleasing to watch and even someone who didn't have any clue about contemporary dance would appreciate at least one of the pieces performed there.

The groups that performed did well but I was most impressed by the UP Dance Company since they did the most numbers that showed nice variety and also showcased their versatility. I can't wait to see more performances from them.

What they presented was just a teaser of what is to be expected in this dance festival which continues the week after at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Compared to the French - Pinoy Contemporary Dance performance that I saw the week before, the performances by the groups were more accessible and somewhat less esoteric.

The main performances happen during the festival's 2nd week and I do hope that I will be able to catch the action there.

Pinoy - French Contemporary Dance Week

Contemporary dance is something that I have very limited knowledge of but I'm very much interested in it. I've seen several ballet productions before and it's usually the music that drew me in. But an opportunity came for me to gain more experience in the field of contemporary dance when Ms. Flora Geley of the French Embassy invited me to watch a performance during the Pinoy - French Contemporary Dance Week.

The Pinoy - French Contemporary Dance week had two performance dates and I chose to catch the second performance that featured the short performance Kung Fu Commandos or Clamor in the East, Attack in the West. And also featured in this date were the long performances of the pieces Which Way? and Kung Fu Dancing. Yet, this event is still a part of a series of dance performances at the PETA Theater Center called the East West Danse.

The night began with the short performance of the piece called Kung Fu Commandos or Clamor in the East, Attack in the West. This was performed by the Eolipile Dance Company from France and it featured dancers Caroline Desmaison and Sibile Planques. And accompanying them was musician Thierry Madiot.

Ms. Geley tried to warn me that this was an unconventional piece and she was right. The piece started with one of the dancers whom I can't recall if she was either Caroline or Sibile, entering the stage cautiously, very wary of an impending threat. Then long balloons were thrown on stage and the dancer seemed trapped by those. Then the other dancer, this one looked menacing, came on stage armed with more balloons and she somehow act as the aggressor, shooting more balloons at the first dancer. The dance continued on with both dancers engaged in conflict, with one gaining the upper hand over the other and then their roles getting reversed once again. The piece wasn't pleasant to watch. The movements weren't meant to highlight the beauty of a dancer's lines. The piece was oppressive, threatening, disturbing and sometimes jarring. In the end, the second dancer was alone on stage and her movements became crooked, uncomfortable and very restricted as if she has lost the ability to move freely.

As the piece ended, I could sense that the audience was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. It wasn't easy watching two dancer engaged in combat even though it was a dance performance. There wasn't any attempt to show that this act of fighting had any beauty in it. Even the embrace of the two dancers at several points during their entanglements looked extremely suspicious and it was indeed a deceptive embrace. I'm just glad that prior to watching this, I've prepared myself to expect something different and something unusual which was the case with this first performance.

The second performance was one of the main performances of the night. Taking to the stage was Rhosam Prudenciado Jr. performing his award winning piece Which Way?. I've seen Prudenciado perform before and I've read about his triumph at the 2008 Wi Fi Body Contemporary Dance Festival and at the Yokohama Dance Collection R 2009. But I haven't seen him perform this piece before so when I found out that he was supposed to perform this at the second night of the Pinoy - French Contemporary Dance Week, I decided that this was the one that I had to watch.

I could sense during his performance that this piece was very personal to him and I did feel his struggle, confusion and indecision while he performed. Compared to the first piece of the night, this performance was a lot more accessible and the audience did respond very positively to this piece.

The last performance of the night was the highlight of the night. The piece Kung Fu Dancing was performed by Lin Yuan Shang. And at the beginning of the piece, there was a message shown on the video projected at the background that somehow acted as a warning. The message was wondering why it was easier to watch a Kung Fu movie than a contemporary dance. And this piece proved to be one of the hardest to understand since this included some Eastern Philosophies that tied Kung Fu and contemporary dance together. Shang's movements were more circular than what is normally seen in Kung Fu movies and yet there were moments when he would go for a rotating kick in the air or one of my favorite movies, a butterfly kick. It was quite a challenge to digest everything that was offered by this piece, the actual movement of the dancer, the philosophies that were shown at the screen and the words that were spoken by Lin Yuan Shang. But there was indeed a very different energy in the theater while he was performing. It may be a bit strange but this was when I sensed that there was beauty in the performance.

The artists during the brief discussion after the performance.

After the performance, all of the artists were invited back on stage and a brief panel discussion happened and it was a nice moment to learn more about the artists and the pieces that they performed. And after the show was over, I had the opportunity to talk to some of them and it was quite a surprise to see a couple of musicians in attendance as well.

I was very glad to see this night's performance and the pieces had variety and it took me to many different moods. I might have felt disturbed during the first piece but I left the PETA Theater Center feeling that I took something more with me, possibly a new insight in life.