DANCE Swag!

It was easy to forget I was at a dance performance!

From the onset, it was hard not to notice the many contrasts, even if they were subtle. The chaotic strumming of each string, and the high pitch screeching echoing through the speakers were an anarchic counterpoint to Fukuhara’s orderly trancelike movement ritual. He moved lightly, yet with noticeable weight, carrying his pelvis low to the ground, often maintaining a rounded torso which acted as the anchor to his angular limbs.

Red chested from her self inflicted beating, Mason lowered herself towards the floor and I couldn’t help but wonder if her body had become metaphoric memory – as if pounding here chest was an attempt to beat her memories into nonexistence.

With the melding of both companies performing various dance genres with mixed casts, the second annual “2 gether we Dance”, was a leap towards commonality and the embracing of difference. 

As each piece wafted by, I realized I had no use for my bus ticket (the piece of paper I was holding). My thoughts drifted to the many ways the paper could have been used – how HATCH could have separated itself from other showcases …  completely eviscerated their competition. But instead of dwelling on my own expectations, I allowed the words “Dark, Vast and Maze” on the strip of paper, to fall to the bottom of my traveling satchel.

Kun-Yang Ling/Dancers is one company on the dance map in The City of Brotherly Love that continues to push artistic boundaries.