This video shows an excerpt from a piece called “Haze”, performed by the Beijing Contemporary Dance Company. The choreography is by Wang Yuan and music by Henryk Gorecki, Symphony No.3 & Biosphere.
This piece is fascinating and a great study of how dancers cope on an unstable stage made from what looks like a giant mattress. Overall the piece is dark, gloomy, tense and foreboding. The scene is stark and bare, void of any color. The music, in this excerpt, is heavy, driving and haunting and together they seem to dwarf the dancers into isolated vulnerable anonymity. Repeatedly they fall to the ground with daring risks in different ways made possible by the springy ground.
The dancers are beautiful and dance beautifully to, but I find them impersonal, with little real interaction between them which I would like to see more of.. Instead, I get an overwhelming feeling of isolation regardless the numbers of dancers together.
The beginning is beautiful as the dancers stand on stage with lanterns hanging above them, a gorgeous moment. In all I find this piece very intriguing and a great idea that the whole piece is set on an unstable ground. I would love to have the opportunity to see this performance live!
I hope you enjoy this clip and please feel free to voice your thoughts!
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