10,000 Dreams: Celebration of Asian Choreography
Program A Review
June 18, 2024 | Kennedy Center – Washington, D.C., USA
In June, the Kennedy Center hosted a festival titled 10,000 Dreams: A Celebration of Asian Choreography, a weeklong event that presented works created by Asian and Asian American choreographers.
The festival, curated by Phil Chan, co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, featured two mixed repertory programs and a special one-night-only tribute to Choo San Goh (1948-1987), a trailblazing choreographer and former associate artistic director of The Washington Ballet.
The festival brought together an impressive lineup of the participants, including Houston Ballet, Ballet West, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Singapore Ballet, and The Washington Ballet.
The event turned out to be a heartfelt celebration of Asian representation in ballet, shining the spotlight on the talented choreographers and dancers alike.
10,000 Dreams: Celebration of Asian Choreography Program A Review
The first mixed-bill program (Program A) featured The Washington Ballet’s dancers in home-coming, created by Brett Ishida; Ballet West in Play on Impulse by Caili Quan; and the dancers of Pacific Northwest Ballet in The Veil Between Worlds by Edwaard Liang.
Ishida’s “home-coming” – a poignant mediation on themes of love, loss, grief and remembrance – was the most memorable and effective piece on this program.
A fourth generation Japanese American, Ishida was raised in California and received her formal dance training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington D.C. and the School of American Ballet.
home-coming was specifically created on the dancers of The Washington Ballet and premiered in June 2022 as part of the NEXTsteps program, commissioned by Julie Kent, then artistic director of the company.
In her somber and evocative home-coming, Ishida masterly stirs up the drama and the mystery, igniting imagination and inspiring questions.
Who are these women whose grief we are witnessing?
What is their plight?
What are their life stories?
The choreography for the female ensemble is stirring, melancholic and poetic in equal measure, with flowing and languid gestures and stunning passages of pointework.
There is also a quartet of male dancers which bursts onto the stage with ferocious abandon, leaping and flying about the somber space as if haunted. (Clad in dark costumes, the dancers were reminiscent of a flock of black birds, scavenging around a desolate piece of land.)
At all times, the stage is shrouded in darkness, highlighting the atmosphere of sorrow and desperation. But as the piece progressed, there was a feeling of rebirth and salvation in the air, as the ballerinas shed their voluptuous skirts and balanced on their pointes in an exquisite chorus, as if taking part in a spiritual sisterly communion.
The dancers’ gorgeous attire (particularly for the women), created by Judith Hansen, deserves a special praise.
Caili Quan’s Play on Impulse for Ballet West was inspired by “the freewheeling experiences of youth.”
Set to an energetic medley of popular songs (the soundtrack included familiar tunes by Björk, The Cardigans, Deee-Lite, Elvis Presley and The Velvet Underground), the dance has a feel of a big happy summer party, driven and energized by the upbeat choreography (which was based primarily on the modern-dance vocabulary and every-day movements) as well as the dynamism and vitality of the dancers.
The sizable cast of Ballet West utterly enjoyed themselves in this bouncy play, breezing with ease and elan through Quan’s lighthearted steps and giving the audience plenty of moments to cheer.
Edwaard Liang’s The Veil Between Worlds, in contrast to the previous piece, is a showcase of neoclassical ballet.
A graduate of the School of American Ballet, Liang spent most of his dancing career at the New York City Ballet. No wonder his piece for the Pacific Northwest Ballet shows a penchant and knowledge of Balanchine’s trademark choreographic style.
Liang, who was recently appointed as the new artistic director of The Washington Ballet not only knows a thing or two about ballet technique but also recognizes the importance of showing dancers’ technical prowess to its full advantage.
The ballet was accompanied by a vigorous score by Oliver Davis, performed live onstage by the Kennedy Center Orchestra. (This was the only ballet on the program that was danced to live music.)
With simple but attractive costumes and strong visual elements (a huge billow of silk is prominently featured during the ballet – a literal veil of the title), The Veil Between Worlds had many moments to relish and proved a good fit for the highly skilled dancers of Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Featured Photo of The Washington Ballet’s Maki Onuki & Gilles Delellio in Brett Ishida’s home-coming. Photo by Teresa Wood, courtesy of The Kennedy Center.
