'SenseScape': Chinese dance tradition updated

'SenseScape': Chinese dance tradition updated:

Traditional, classical Chinese dance gets a fresh flourish of energy in Lily Cai's newest creation, 'SenseScape.'

The Shanghai-born Cai is known for her blend of modern dance and Chinese influences, but whatever dance idiom she chooses, Cai's trademark is to give each work a unique texture. Cai - who founded her troupe in 1988 - credits the initial impetus of 'SenseScape' to composer Gang Situ, her longtime collaborative partner, who has created a partly original, partly sampled score for the work.

"It's about the human senses and the chi," Cai says, referencing the concept of energy and flow of life forces. "My technique itself is about the chi. In the past when I've choreographed, always I see an image first, but this time, I worked from the inside. I keep telling my dancers that the movement is just the result, like when you laugh or cry, you sense the sadness or happiness, then you start the action."

Read more at SFGate.com.

Main portion of the post

Rest of post here.

Read more...

Filmmaker trains camera on Paris Opera Ballet

Filmmaker trains camera on Paris Opera Ballet:

Real life is the script for Frederick Wiseman, the documentary filmmaker, who turns his lens onto one of France's grandest institutions, the Paris Opera Ballet, in his latest film 'La Danse,' which opens Friday. Taking the viewer into the nooks and crannies of the Opera's venerable Palais Garnier and Opera Bastille, Wiseman observes the company in a 'fly on the wall' fashion - dancers in rehearsal, at rest, meeting with administrators, costumers dying swaths of fabric and meticulously beading elaborate costumes - uncovering stories large and small in the process.

Read more...

Shrinking 'Nutcracker' to child size

Shrinking 'Nutcracker' to child size:

Like most people in the ballet world, the soft-spoken Mark Foehringer has had long experience with 'Nutcracker.' But with his latest production - which the Mark Foehringer Dance Project|SF will perform twice a day at the Zeum from next Sunday to Dec. 20 - he's hoping to capture the interest of young audiences with a child-scaled ballet that he describes as more like 'danced storytelling.'

Q: Did the Zeum come to you with the idea of a "Nutcracker"?

A: Actually it worked the other way. We were putting together a long-term plan for the company, and one of the pieces of that plan was that we would do a show to help develop young audiences. Usually our shows are contemporary or abstract - more grown-up things, but we wanted to open up our work to kids.

One of the things I liked was that the theater at the Zeum was not in constant use. I think it was originally built as a teaching theater, and there have been workshops and some productions in it, but they hadn't had a lot that brought the theatergoing experience to that age range of 2 to 4 years old.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/27/PKBI1AN6TS.DTL#ixzz0YBRcOEGX

Read more...

Gary Masters gives ballet a modern spin

Gary Masters gives ballet a modern spin: "Veteran choreographer Gary Masters is perhaps best known for his modern dance work, but ballet is the idiom of choice for his latest, 'Fete for Three,' his third work for Diablo Ballet, which kicks off its 16th season at Walnut Creek's Lesher Center for the Arts this weekend.

Masters - who is on the faculty at San Jose State University and also directs his own company, sjDANCEco - has deep connections to modern dance giant Jose Limon, who inspired him to found the Limon West Dance Project of San Jose, the West Coast ensemble of the Limon Company."

Read more...

DV8's Newson discusses S.F. production

DV8's Newson discusses S.F. production: "Founded in 1986 by Australian-born Lloyd Newson - who studied psychology in Melbourne before joining New Zealand Ballet - DV8 Physical Theatre's unnerving and often raw work blends movement with text - sometimes provocative and unafraid to dive headlong into touchy topics like racism and religious intolerance."

Read more...