On Monday, July 23, The Mann Center for the Performing Arts welcomed the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and the Taiko Masala Master Drummers to its stage, as part of the 2007 Young People's Concert Series. The free concert, which lasted for an hour, brought culture to Philadelphians especially to children.
The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company from New Jersey started the show with a vaudeville-like act consisting of three people, one as a trainer and the other two as a giant dragon-dog, which was very convincing since they moved as one (a bit uncomfortable because the other guy near the rump had to crouch/ and bend his back). They coordinated moving the tail with blinking the eye and opening the mouth.
The costumes they wore not only added to the movements but also to the effect/story they told. The act to follow was a solitary guy with two batons... he might be a grasshopper because he moved like one, his appearance was sort of grasshopper-esque... he had two long antennas made up of tail-feathers and he made the grating chirping sound of grasshoppers. There was a woman and she imitated the crane with its precision and angular movements. Everything flowed... she did great body isolation movements especially with her arms, elbows, hands, and fingers.
The ribbon dance was spectacular. It was pure bright energy/motion captured the serpentine paths outlines by the ribbons' lightness and undulation (wave-like motion). Some dancers have the ability to defy gravity, but the freedom of the ribbons exceeded the heaviness and corporeality of even the most agile human being. It was whimsical and lively like flying snakes.
The Chinese dancers successfully used crops like fans to create images and movements unfathomable to the human body. Everything was just bouncy and fluid.
The second half of the concert was filled by Japanese drumming and martial arts demonstrations from Taiko Masala, INC., New York. The drumming was very inviting, I wanted to get a drum and start some sort of beat/rhythm. The way the drummers raised thier sticks to the sky and bringing it down reminded me of the controllers of the game console/system of Wii. Sometimes the flute accompaniment felt like transitional/elevator music (I foget that it's part of the performance).
Of course the kids, who attended, were mostly brats, and they forgot their "Mann" manners at home, but overall it was an awesome "Asian Experience."
Posted by Michael Diezmos at July 25, 2007 2:46 PM