Hong Kong Dance Firm’s new full-length manufacturing, The Legend of Lanling, continues creative director Yang Yuntao’s quest to mix Chinese language dance with martial arts.
Warrior Lanling is the sobriquet given to a real-life Chinese language hero of the Northern Qi dynasty, Gao Changgong (541-573). Famed for each his heroic army exploits and his mild nature, Lanling is claimed to have worn a masks on the battlefield to disguise the fantastic thing about his face and terrify the enemy – his mixture of noble character and fierce preventing abilities is the very essence of the traditional martial arts hero.
He met a tragic finish when the emperor had him poisoned.
The choreography, by Yang with principal dancers Ong Tze Shen and Ho Ho-fei as assistant choreographers, is closely primarily based on martial arts and is brilliantly executed by the entire firm, with each female and male dancers as warriors.
Ong and Ho additionally share the title position, with Ho embodying the ruthless warrior and Ong the advanced human being.
A tool employed to wonderful impact contrasts high-speed motion by the group with gradual movement by a person – notably when Ong’s Lanling circles very slowly around the central stage the place the soldiers are preventing.
Regardless of its undoubted energy, The Legend of Lanling stays on one word during – after the primary 40 minutes, I started to crave extra distinction and selection in each visuals and choreography. Yang and his collaborators have chosen to take a non-narrative method. Sadly, the therapy is so summary that it fails to generate any deeper emotion and leaves one with no clear sense of Lanling’s persona.
One other challenge is the lopsided construction: the primary (and for much longer) half is much stronger than the second. After the interval, a scene with warriors beating enormous drums on either side of the stage reaches a climax, which makes for a superb end. Nonetheless, as a substitute of stopping there, the piece carries on to finish on a low-key scene which comes as a let-down.
The manufacturing reunites the artistic staff from Nezha: Untold Solitude and reveals once more how a lot expertise there’s in Hong Kong’s design scene.
Yeung Tsz-yan’s magnificent lighting units the temper and creates hanging results to focus on key moments. Mandy Tam’s costumes and Jan Wong’s set evoke a harsh, monochrome world of battle. The entire stage is roofed in damp soil, representing the mud of Lanling’s many battlefields; by the tip, the soldiers are lined in it, like troopers from World Battle I.
A slope rises up in the back of the stage, of which Yang makes intelligent use – our bodies roll slowly time and again down it; Lanling himself descends or ascends it, singled out by a shaft of sunshine.
Laurence Lau’s minimalist rating is well-judged and augmented by the large drumming carried out by the corporate’s amazingly multitalented dancers.
“The Legend of Lanling”, Hong Kong Dance Firm, Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium. Reviewed: April 13.
