Dance is Universal

One of the great things about dance is that it is truly an international language. That was demonstrated today at the BodyVox Dance Center where we hosted a couple of dancers from the Beijing Dance Academy. The exchange of ideas and culture is really the root of what we hope to accomplish as artists. We took the opportunity to host these brilliant young dancers in a forum that was open to the public, where they could see them perform, have a chance to ask questions and then actually get up and learn a few basics about traditional Chinese dance.

The event began with Jamey Hampton introducing Hong Mautz, President of Chinus, the company that has brought the dancers to America for a tour of the West Coast. She told us, a crowd of about 50 people, about the academy and how prestigious it is in China. She introduced the dancers and invited Wang Zihan to perform a solo called ‘Calligraphy’. It was an amazing piece of work using very traditional dance form that depicted the four styles of Chinese calligraphy, from very formal and rigid to wild and stylish. By the end, he was leaping and twisting in the air like a bravura martial artist. His control and technique were supreme, Jamey’s son said he was the best.

Next, we were introduced to Guo Jiao who performed a piece called ‘Flying Angel’. She was in a beautiful, ornate costume with ‘wings’ of silk that stretched out 20 feet in each direction. She began with a wonderful adagio movement before she started making huge circles and patterns with the fabric. Her shapes were evocative of ancient cave paintings from the northern part of China and it was like she was painting in the air.  After each dance, the audience was able to ask questions about the dances, the dancers themselves and about their training. Hong was able to interpret for us as we learned about their rigorous training and how they had auditioned for the academy. We learned about the types of dance they study and how many years they spend perfecting their craft. Jamey was great in discovering the parallels between the kinds of dance that we are familiar with and what we had just seen performed.

After that, we had a chance to perform for them! Eric Skinner and Ashley Roland performed the BodyVox staple, ‘Twins’. A fun, and very western, dance to an Italian aria. We were able to share thoughts about our training and inspirations with them. Then we all got up and Mr. Zihan taught us some very fundamental poses, gestures and movements from traditional Chinese dance. It was a fun way to explore our differences and our similarities, learn about each other’s cultures and training and see some amazing performances. This is something special that I love about touring, getting to meet people in other places, getting to know them and being able to share our art and dance.

Beijing dance academy will be performing this Tuesday and Wednesday evenings (Feb. 23 and 24) at the Newmark Theater in Portland, OR and in Seattle at the Paramount Theatre Feb  27 and 28. You can check out the website for information on their performances  www.butterflyloversdance.com