S.N.Arly

Kiddo and I have a classical Chinese watersleeve dance duet called impermanence. Its message is that we should treasure people while they're in our lives, as we never know when they'll be gone.

I play the role of mom, happy when my child is with me and wistful when she's away. As the child, they are just excited for their future. The dance ends with her alone on stage, looking back to where I was.

We'd performed this a few times during lunar new year, but we really fine tuned the moves and the emotional punch for this staged show. I legit burst into tears when I got off stage and had to get out of the wings so I wouldn't be heard.

I hope to see video of this at some point, because I want to see it as the audience did.

It should be noted that I had taken in Kiddo's costume on the sides, but the ladder stitch did not hold. I'll have to redo it with something more sturdy.

These photos are from my kid's solo, Flowing Clouds, Running Water. The first three minutes were choreographed by our amazing instructor Aloe Ao Liu, who took into consideration kiddo's height and strengths. When Aloe had to go on leave unexpectedly, Arwin stepped up to choreograph the final two minutes and to provide the feedback kiddo needed to make this an amazing solo. We are grateful to both of them for giving my kid this chance to shine.

The kiddo's height and arm length made them a good candidate to use flags (AKA praise flags), which we hadn't seen other CAAM Chinese Dance Theater dancers use before. There are other, stiffer flags that we've used, but not these flowy ones.

Kiddo has been dancing with CAAM CDT for 12 years, and is officially moving from the youth program to the adult program. Those years have been both amazing and fraught. ADHD resulted in one of the teachers flat-out ignoring my kid, which meant her skills were self-built. In recent years, kiddo's dance friends and teachers have helped correct skills that were the result of observation without feedback. My kid's love in dance is what sparked me to give it a try during the pandemic. It is something she takes great joy in (especially the performing part).

Kiddo is hoping to get to perform this solo at outreaches throughout the metro this summer, and they plan to continue with dance at CAAM CDT in the adult program for the foreseeable future. I am so lucky to get to dance with my kid (who is no longer really a child)!

Here are some more pics from Crazy Busy Dance Weekend (TM).

These are from The Dai Fingernail Dance with CAAM Chinese Dance Theater, and they were taken by Jing Zhang. This dance showcases graceful feminine beauty through agile, elegant, and rhythmically dynamic movements. This dance features extremely long fingernails (ours were 7-9 inches long), typically gold in color.

Who are the Dai people?

"The Dai people are closely related to the Shan, Lao and Thai people who form a majority in Laos and Thailand, and a large minority in Myanmar. Originally, the Tai, or Dai, lived closely together in modern Yunnan Province until political chaos and wars in the north at the end of the Tang and Song dynasty and various nomadic peoples prompted some to move further south into modern Laos then Thailand. As with many other officially recognized ethnic groups in China (See Gaoshan and Yao), the term Dai, at least within Chinese usage, is an umbrella term and as such has no equivalent in Tai languages, who have only more general terms for 'Tai peoples in general'." - Wikipedia

I'm off to the theater for tech rehearsal part 1.

Shanghailanders is expected to only have two shows. We hope to have a good audience to enjoy the outcome of so much work and effort.

Tickets are available at: https://search.seatyourself.biz/webstore/accounts/shenpei/buy-tix

The CAAM Chinese Dance Theater's spring show, Where Spring Lingers, is this Sunday, May 31, from 2-4pm! This is my kid's final performance as a youth dancer with CAAM-CDT. We will be performing our water sleeve duet and they will be performing their first ever solo (it's AMAZING)!

This show will be held at the Eden Prairie High school (17185 Valley View Rd, Eden Prairie) - this is not the performing arts center.

We're coming up on three years of my involvement with this project. It's been a greater time commitment than I'd planned, but it is going to be amazing.

We are using dance and acting to tell the story of Shanghai's Jewish population during WWII.

If you happen to be in or near the Twin Cities in Minnesota, we will have two shows at Fridley High School: May 30, 7:00pm ~9pm May 31, 6:30pm~8:30pm

Tickets are $30. Students can get in for $19, and groups of 8-15 people can use the code GROUP to get their tickets for $27 each.

Tickets are available at: https://search.seatyourself.biz/.../accounts/shenpei/buy-tix

Are you putting off your physical therapy because it's boring, hurts, makes you dizzy, or for any other reason? I understand. I have been there.