I Don’t Wanna Dance Alone bring together a dozen Asian performers with a wide range of age and dance experience and they do… dance to the day when fear it is gone.
That song is the Byrd’s Change is Now. Written at a time when the great promise of the Sixties was fracturing, only one year past the Summer of Love. All is now/ The time that we have to live/ Gather all that we can.
We aspire to share the joy of community and movement with as many people as possible, because dancing is for everyone.
That is Director, Choreographer, and inspirational guide Cindy Yunha Yang-Barlow mission statement for this Contemporary Dance production.
The deep background behind this, she writes about being an Asian eight-year-old in New Zealand and taking her first dance lessons. Feeling alone and insecure, without an extended family around to support.
Twenty years later, she can take a diverse dozen Asian performers, some with minimal dance experience, with ages ranging from 14 to 47, and build a narrative performance which celebrates the communal nature of this art form.
Music is part of the soul. It is a very personal experience and a common one, to feel moved by music and want to shake and shimmy. That is what bedrooms and bed-sits are for.
To step up and take a plunge requires a certain amount of chutzpah and an equally supportive environment, and the Jang Huddle seem to have achieved that.
This year the performances are part of the Auckland Arts Festival for 2024.
The setting starts with a darkened stage, and off to stage left is indeed a bedroom with a young woman, and an old-school telephone.
She ventures out timidly at first. Gets pushed around a bit by a few others. Loud cheering follows, and it appears to come from everywhere. Soundtrack, performers, and audience.
The whole troupe of twelve appear. They perform various scenarios, all of which appear as communal dances at their core.
More sophisticated than a line dance, although that may be one of the elements.
The dance acts out various scenarios. At the mid-point is a communal feast.
Tables are brought out. Bowls of (imitation) food are placed on the tables. It is a celebratory feast for extended family. A couple of people are plucked from the audience to join. They look surprised, but I’m sure one of those is the Director.
From that cosy little bedroom off to stage left, a young woman phones in and gets to talk to several attendees.
Mirrors the isolation of people separated from their homeland and their extended family environment.
A member of the audience does comment later to a post-performance discussion, that the sequence is novel in a contemporary dance performance.
At the time it does not appear dislocating at all. It seems natural and serves the purpose to bind all the players together.
A myriad of colourful costumes from Jieying Cai. After a dance-off, a winner is anointed in robes and a crown. In the best James Brown tradition of the Number One Soul Brother.
The production moves on upbeat Pop music composed by Rewind Fields.
The stage is invaded by several audience members, to join the dancing at the close.
I Don’t Wanna Dance Alone looks easier than the hard work that went into it, and that is a credit to the Director.
The last word is courtesy of Bobby Freeman and his enduring Doo-Wop classic Do You Wanna Dance, which is celebration and salvation in two and a half minutes flat!
Rev. Orange Peel
Discover more from Red Raven News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.