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.