Unveil
Gin Dance Company
Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival
Washington, D.C.
February 22, 2020
Gin Dance Company’s Unveil, presented the first weekend of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, explored storytelling, perspective, and connection. Founder and artistic director Shu-Chen Cuff's background in ballet, modern, jazz, Chinese folk dance, and Chinese opera movements blend together to create Gin Dance Company’s unique East-meets-West style.
The premiere of “Breaking News” utilized the exaggerated storytelling techniques of Chinese opera movements to show the same story from multiple perspectives: four women involved in a shooting, a news anchor, and the two investigating police officers. The simple set, a park bench and a desk, allowed the dancers to create the environment through pantomime and dance. The anchor, danced by Cuff, began by plucking ideas out of the air, rearranging them, and fervently writing. Synthesizing her sources, she re-enacted the shooting, conveying a remarkable amount of information with only her hands and face.
The two policewomen embodied the Chinese opera movement principle of opposition, one moving her entire body all the way to the left in order to look to the right, the other rising all the way up on her tippy toes before crouching down to examine the ground, an enormous magnifying glass pressed to her eye. Chinese opera typically includes exaggerated pedestrian movements (there are 20 distinct beard movements alone) meant to communicate specific pieces of information to the audience. While there are more than 360 regional opera forms, they share the same three basic principles: balance, energy, and opposition and require a minimum of fifteen years of rigorous training.
Dancers Julia Hellmich, Na Dai, Courtney Lapenta, Elizabeth Watson, Hannah Church, Alison Grant, photo by Michele Egan
Between numbers, Cuff discussed her vision for the Rashomon-like piece: “You may think the story unfolds one way and the person next to you thinks it is completely different -- that’s the beauty of art. We are each telling our own story and each finding our own meaning.”
A contemporary ballet piece, “Infinity,” looked at spirituality and the afterlife. It featured delicate and flowing movements full of longing and reverence. Danced to Barber’s Adagio for Strings, seven dancers in nude leotards with floor-length gauzy grey ombre skirts floated between two sheer triangular pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling. Cuff’s choreography excels at finding stillness within movement, creating a sense of awe and peace.
It was easy to see why the final piece, “We, The Moon, The Sun,” was billed as a fan favorite. A bright full moon filled the projected background as Cuff rolled her arms like the tide and a lone flute played. The movements took on a martial arts quality as a war drum joined the flute. Fast, fluttery high kicks followed arms windmilling in a blur. Six dancers joined her for the second section, soldier-stepping as a unit. They advanced diagonally across the stage, while the sound of sticks slapping together reverberated through the auditorium. Arms flew up as they inhaled in unison, retreating backward. Intricate hand and facial gestures followed sweeping rond de jambes, legs circling the dancers’ bodies like a compass. While the dancers displayed excellent technique, it was impossible not to watch Cuff when she was on stage with them. Her years of experience show in each detail -- a shoulder that lingers a touch longer, a spin that whips just a little faster. Emotions infuse her gestures, creating a spell-binding effect.
In her famous TEDTalk “The Danger of a Single Story,” author Chimamanda Adichie Ngozi says, “When we show a people as only one thing, over and over again, that is what they become. The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.” GDC’s Unveil encouraged us to look at multiple perspectives, broadening our pool of stories and deepening our sense of community.
Photo: top, Shu-Chen Cuff, by Michelle Egan. Both photos courtesy Gin Dance Company