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DanceWorks and Harbourfront Centre current Deciphers by Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu, with performances at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre February 8 to 10. It’ll be the Ontario premiere for the work, offered as a part of the Torque up to date dance collection.
The artistic group backing up the dancers consists of lighting design by Lucie Bazzo, visible design by Ivy Wang, sound design by Olesia Onykllenko, and dramaturgical recommendation from Man Cools and out of doors eye Ginelle Chagnon.
The result’s a sort of hybrid of dance and theatre that blends motion and rhythmic sequences with multilingual spoken phrase. In an announcement Nathalie Bonjour, Director, Performing Arts at Harbourfront Centre, calls it an “extraordinary use of the physique as a instrument of linguistic expression”.
We spoke to dancer/choreographers Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu about how this distinctive work got here to fruition.
Naishi Wang and Jean Abreu
Naishi Wang was born in Changchun, China, and grew up studying martial arts in addition to Chinese language classical and people dance at Jilin Faculty of Artwork. He emigrated to Toronto in 2004, and studied dance on the Dance Arts Institute (previously College of Toronto Dance Theatre).
Jean Abreu is a local of Brazil, and his adolescence was steeped within the rhythms and dance of that nation, a language that informs his work at present. Jean moved to London, UK in 1996 as a way to examine at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance. He’s Creative Director of Jean Abreu Dance, the corporate he based in 2009.
Deciphers additionally provides spoken phrase to the motion and music, impressed by Canadian poet Mark Strand and Brazilian poet Fernando Sabino. The weather come collectively to look at the ways in which immigrants negotiate the complicated problems with speaking throughout not solely a language, however a cultural hole.
Whereas the supplies point out that the work has been in progress since 2020, it seems the connection between the 2 artists goes again even farther.
The Interview
“Deciphers started with Naishi and I — I prefer to joke — with flirting one another on-line,” laughs Jean.
The 2 had found one another’s works by way of the comparatively small world of worldwide up to date dance, and admired it.
“We began to naturally get drawn to one another’s work.” Formally, he says it was dramaturge Man Cools who made the official introduction in about 2019. “It was clear that we needed to collborate.”
Naishi had been provided a residency in 2020 the place they deliberate on working collectively, however the assembly was axed due to the onset of the pandemic. The 2 continued to speak and collaborate on-line by means of the lockdown interval on the work. Jean was lastly in a position to come to Canada, particularly Ottawa within the chilly winter, in 2021 to satisfy in individual. By way of a five-week interval, they have been in a position to hammer out the ins and outs of the manufacturing.
That preliminary venture underwent additional improvement and efficiency at a residency in Nottingham, and one other at Dance Metropolis at Newcastle Upon Tyne within the UK. All through, the venture was supported by organizations in Canada and the UK. Deciphers had its Canadian premiere on the PuSh Worldwide Performing Arts Competition in Vancouver.
From the current Vancouver efficiency of Deciphers:
“We’re so excited at Harbourfront,” Naishi says.
“That is a global collaboration,” provides Jean.
Each dancer brings their background to their present work, and as up to date artists, the dichotomy of Brazilian vs. Chinese language traditions is one thing that wasn’t initially a precedence to precise. “I feel within the earlier stage, we didn’t take into consideration this an excessive amount of,” says Naishi.
The concept of how the converging cultures and immigrant realities are expressed got here out of working by means of the choreography.
“We contacted William Lau,” he notes. Lau is a famous knowledgeable in Chinese language opera. “This concept of forming the brand new tradition, to protect the brand new tradition, to satisfy within the physique,” Naishi explains the idea behind it. When it comes to background parts, it juxtaposes the respiratory, the aesthetic language of Chinese language dance with the eagerness and physicality of Brazilian. However, it’s not about quoting from folklore. “Inside particular dance sorts and type, we are able to embody this ambiance, this sense, this essence of every tradition’s dance.”
The choreography evokes the emotions of tradition shock, of how immigrants soak up and react to the brand new surroundings and all its challenges. “We’re interested in this transformation, and what did it take,” Jean says. “That dance of unpacking, and altering and reworking […] it was extra a sphere of curiosity.”
He talks concerning the “bodily immigrant expertise, is how will we let factor seem.?” An immigrant is continually transferring from one place and arriving at one other place, however is definitely in neither, as he explains it.
“We ask, the place is there?”
Together with the motion, there are additionally moments of silence. “We actually needed to permit in Deciphers, the house to be there.”
Spoken Phrase
Naishi likens writing poetry to excited about dance. “We attempt to lay out the poetry as an empty house,” he explains. It’s not at all times immediately addressed within the motion. The spoken phrase parts act as a “translation of our bodily expertise,” he provides. In utilizing Mark Unusual’s poem “Retaining Issues Complete”, the work was translated from English to Chinese language, “then from Chinese language to the physique.”
Jean was interested in the work of Brazilian poet Fernando Sabino, and a selected piece. The quote that drew him, translated from Portuguese, goes one thing like this:
“In any case we’re left with three issues: a certainty that we’re at all times simply starting, a assure that we should preserve going but in addition that we are going to most definitely be interrupted earlier than attending to the top. Due to this fact we should flip interruption in a brand new path, downfall right into a dance, worry right into a ladder, our desires into bridges and our wants into an encounter.”
Jean was interested in the inherent message. “The sense of getting to continually reinvent.” Language and voice, as he notes, are each extensions of the physique. “The factor for us is like one other motion,” he says.
The set is minimalist, conserving the concentrate on the motion and sound. “We use music, however we additionally use silence,” Naishi says. “I feel the core thought of Deciphers is to translate the immigrant expertise, however that’s not all.”
As he remarks, immigrant experiences are diverse, and may’t all be funnelled into one paradigm. The 2 dancers specific these variations.
“We use this concept — understanding blended with misunderstanding — communication is imperfect,” he says, “a unique perspective, however the same journey.” Their actions aren’t essentially in sync. “We’re in the identical feeling collectively, to spotlight the variations. We sort of needed to concentrate on the person expertise.”
That, as he factors out, is likely one of the nice benefits to immigrating to Canada — the sheer variety of immigrants from so many various nations, and even areas inside these nations.
The mixture of duality and commonality makes for a vibrant dance expertise. “I feel that’s the specialness of Deciphers,” says Jean.
For viewers members who don’t have firsthand expertise of immigration, the efficiency speaks to common parts of communication/miscommunication, and co-existence in a crowded world.
- Wang and Abreu will reply questions at a post-show Q&A on February 9. Extra data and tickets for the Toronto performances at Harbourfront Centre [HERE].
After Toronto, Deciphers will journey to Montreal to be carried out at MAI (Montréal, Arts Interculturels) from February 14–17, after which in Ottawa on the Nationwide Arts Centre from February 22–23.
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
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