{"id":3781,"date":"2013-02-12T12:42:11","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T17:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/?p=3781"},"modified":"2013-02-12T12:42:11","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T17:42:11","slug":"elements-azul-dance-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/elements-azul-dance-theatre.htm","title":{"rendered":"Elements – Azul Dance Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Azul_Dance_Theater_P1000129_Emi_7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Azul Dance Theatre \/ Yuki Hasegawa<\/a>
\npresents
\nElements<\/em>
\nSunday, February 3, 2013
\nSalvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance Center<\/p>\n

Azul Dance Theatre\u2019s performance of Elements<\/em> was marked by original movement in which beauty and artistic expression took priority over flash and tricks.\u00a0 Every detail of the choreography, costumes and staging had been beautifully considered.\u00a0 It\u2019s not often that I find myself at the theatre, seeing a new company for the first time, and being so deeply effected by the high quality of their artistry.\u00a0 This company was a wonderful surprise and they surpassed my expectations.<\/p>\n

The performance opened with Mugen<\/em>, a dreamy atmospheric new piece based on folk and traditional Japanese dance, choreographed by Azul\u2019s Artistic Director Yuki Hasegawa, set to music played on traditional Japanese instruments.\u00a0 The dancers wear beautiful kimonos, also created by Hasegawa.\u00a0 The piece is marked with wave-like movement in the arms and torso, often with the feet fixed to the floor in a deep lunge.\u00a0 After the moody and ritualistic first movement, there is inventive and humorous use of parasols in the jazzy second section.\u00a0 The Japanese instruments take on the strains of a 1960s beach tune, then Duke Ellington\u2019s Caravan.\u00a0 The dancers hop, push and pull as if against gravity or the wind.\u00a0 They strike a series of wonderful poses, making great use of the props.\u00a0 In the closing section, a man is seated as if in prayer, his sword by his side.\u00a0 But as he is meditating, a pair of arms appear from behind him, and reach into his robe, removing what looks like a scroll or a map.\u00a0 The figure who took the paper, sneaks up behind another who is also in prayer position, and slides the paper into her kimono.\u00a0 I felt as if the figure embodied distraction, interfering with the processes of the two mediators, breaking their concentration, and maybe even appropriating an important or sacred piece of them.\u00a0 She does everything that she can in a struggle to dominate the man, even going so far as pulling his sword and holding it to his neck or his heart.<\/p>\n

Kanako Yokata choreographed and danced in It\u2019s not your fault<\/em>.\u00a0 Entering the stage on a tether, she struggles to breathe and free herself.\u00a0 Once free, she struggles for balance before opening up into a lyrical adagio.\u00a0 An undertow seems to keep her close to the ground, where she winds up in the center of crocheted blanket.\u00a0 She pulls at the wool and it begins to unravel around her and the blanket tightens around her feet, as if she\u2019s traded in one constraint for another.<\/p>\n

\"AZUL_DANCE_THEATER-WWDFCOOLNY--0153_7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Non-western motifs appear throughout Hasegawa\u2019s Return to the River<\/em>.\u00a0 The dancers enter the stage as if rolling like waves along the floor.\u00a0 The music is cut with the sounds of water sloshing.\u00a0 As the dance opens up, new influences appear.\u00a0 There is a Carribean feel to the way that the women rock their hips and jump.\u00a0 The dance builds with atmospheric lighting and a series of dramatic leaps as the dancers shriek.\u00a0 Their colorful harem pants and halters make especially beautiful costumes.<\/p>\n

One of the stand out pieces of the program for me was Double Helix<\/em>, choreographed and performed by twin sisters Hsiao-Ting Hsieh and Hsiao-Wei Hsieh, set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach.\u00a0 There is an elegance and a clarity to this dance which allowed the expression of the movement to stand out.\u00a0 The sisters perform in a highly synchronized fashion, but this never comes at the expense of the heart and emotion evident in every small gesture.\u00a0 I could have watched this dance all evening long.\u00a0\u00a0 It was performed with lovely live accompaniment on cello by Serafim Smigelskiy.<\/p>\n

\"Azul_Dance_Theater_0839_five_7_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The program closed with Hasegawa\u2019s Elements<\/em>, a splendid theatrical piece.\u00a0 Before the dancing even began, I was taken by the beauty of the costumes, some in rusty autumn colors and others in the greens and turquoise of the sea or the woodlands.\u00a0 The first section pays tribute to water.\u00a0 Torsos and arms ripple and the movement resolves in lovely ensemble poses.\u00a0 Even when the dancers are just standing in place, their upper bodies are tremendously expressive.\u00a0 The wind enters the story, first as a lone figure dressed in white, then as a small group weaving in and out of the ensemble, sending the dancers to twirl and spiral and roll away.\u00a0 Soon the entire group is dressed in white and the dance opens up to an especially beautiful ensemble section with great partnering and counterpoint.\u00a0 Really well done.\u00a0 The drama builds with great use of bolts of fabric — one to symbolize the sun and others to symbolize the ocean.\u00a0 The dance ends in birth so that the entire cycle may begin again.\u00a0 The performance demonstrated a great love, respect and compassion for Mother Earth and her processes.\u00a0 I’m told that Ms. Hasegawa named her company Azul after the blue of ocean water.<\/p>\n

Elements<\/em> lasted an hour and a half without intermission.\u00a0 The time seemed to pass in a heartbeat and Azul Dance Theatre left me wanting even more.\u00a0 If you have the opportunity to see this company, don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Azul Dance Theatre \/ Yuki Hasegawa presents Elements Sunday, February 3, 2013 Salvatore Capezio Theater at Peridance Center Azul Dance Theatre\u2019s performance of Elements was marked by original movement in which beauty and artistic expression took priority over flash and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,20],"tags":[443,444],"class_list":["post-3781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-karen","tag-azul-dance-theatre","tag-yuki-hasegawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3781"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3797,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3781\/revisions\/3797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irasperipheralvisions.com\/WetPaint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}