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Powerhouse Men Steal the CPAA Show

By Yafonne | Special to AsianWeek

Dancers from the CPAA’s The Color of Romance.

This was not the case at Chinese Performing Artists of America’s (CPAA) Chinese New Year dance festival, The Color of Romance, held at the Palace of Fine Arts, where five of its 16-member cast are male: Bai Xue Fu, Ling Gao, Xing Jiu Liu, Bing Wang and Yu Feng Yu.

All of them are award-winning dancers from Beijing — and from the acrobatic cartwheels and martial arts-style moves of Xing Jiu Liu in “Festival” to the grief-stricken sword-wielding male lead Bing Wang in “The Prince and the Goddess” and the earthy animalistic prowess of Ling Gao and Yun Feng Yu in the Tibetan “Cradle on Cow’s Back,” the audience can see why.

With the first half choreographed by artistic director Yong Yao and the second half by guest choreographer Pei Wu Zhou, CPAA’s Color of Romance is a dreamscape dance fantasia interspersed by short specialty Chinese acts such as the incredibly fast, audience-pleasing “Mask Change” act by Master J.D. Zhang, dressed in Sichuan opera attire, slowly waving his golden kung fu fan. But there is no masking the shortcomings of the production team, made evident by the awkward transitions between each side act, the long-winded speech-making of the hosts, the lack of professional microphones for kong hou (Chinese harp) player Junzhi Cui and erhu (two-stringed vertical fiddle) musician Yong Ping Tian, and the simplistic unrefined lighting designs for the stage.

Three female soloists, including the gentle floating Xiao Juan Sun in “The Prince and the Goddess,” the lean and elegant Yang Yang in the Dai maiden “Water” piece and head-balancing expert Jin Mei Li in the Mongolian “Bowl Dance,” performed with the stylized grace and elegant body carriage befitting their professional training in China, while the American-born Norma Fong embodied bold modern feelings as the female soloist in “The Lovers” with Bing Wang. Other than these fine moments of dancing, the rest of the production was mixed-level community ensemble dancing or overly earnest modern interpretative dancing, at best.

Like a herd of young horses trying to break out of their corral, this year’s male dancers gave a strong showing of their dancing prowess and vitality. The restless, expansive energy of the men contrasted sharply with the subdued and shy reserve of the women, just as it should be in traditional Chinese dancing. Nevertheless, CPAA’s choreography is taking new strides — doing away with long opera-style narratives, and running the gamut of modern emotional expressions. Dancers take pride in unusual beginnings and sudden uncharacteristic endings. In “Pursuit,” audiences were treated to two men dancing together, expressing modern existential pain — while a young couple fight each other and fate in “The Lovers.”

Modern dance phrasing, American theatrical staging and Hollywood elements are finding their way into Chinese dancing and story telling, however awkwardly. It’s clear these artists are trying to break out of their traditional roles and boundaries, and that’s heartening. But how successful their breakthrough is remains to be seen, as most of the Chinese audience members are more used to the traditional dance fare.

Yet traditional or not, the “Cradle on Cow’s Back” choreographed by Zhi Hong Su, is absolutely mesmerizing for its overlapping visual imagery, simple structural ingenuity and grounded power. It features Jennifer Liu as the Tibetan girl in red, cradled on the backs of two Tibetan men in olive green skirts and ceremonial sashes, Ling Gao and Yun Feng Yu, who move first like traveling animals, then totemic guardian creatures, and transform at last into expansive wings of the sky. Stunningly simple, evocative of the raw earth, this piece combines the best of tradition with clear, powerful choreography. That singular piece gives a strong direction for these new CPAA artists, who are adjusting to modern times and trying to find their new homeland voice here in America.

The Chinese Performing Artists of America performs The Color of Romance Sat., Feb. 8 at 8 p.m.as part of the Chinese Performing Arts Festival 2003 at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. For more information call 408-973-8276.