Latest news with #'sPillowDanceFestival
Boston Globe
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
At Jacob's Pillow, Eun-Me Ahn's hologram-enhanced ‘Dragons' glitters
Advertisement In her director's note, Ahn described the symbolic significance of the Korean dragon as 'aspiration toward … truly unlimited potential.' For the premiere of 'Dragons' in Becket, Ahn collaborated with the Gen Z dancers and used projection technology to create 'a new time-space of the dragon, guiding us into a future we have never seen before.' When developing the piece during the pandemic, her original dancers were unable to practice together in a physical space, so Ahn moved rehearsals to Zoom and choreographed from a distance. As the show evolved, seven Korean dancers joined the production, and Ahn worked holograms of the original dancers into the piece, projecting them alongside the live performers throughout the show. Advertisement "Dragons" by Eun-Me Ahn was performed twice during week six at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Jean Marie Chabot. For Ahn's choreography, behind a translucent fabric projection screen, the Duke's stage was lined with giant silver foil springs that resemble HVAC tubing. One shiny tube snaked out beyond the rest, and Ahn floated onto stage in a sparkling empire-waist gown reminiscent of the traditional Korean Hanbok. Two short sticks dangling little rainbow ribbons jutted out of her fluffy hat like antennas. She began rhythmic vocalizations, as a bare-chested dancer wearing a black skirt kicked and flipped through the air to the beat of her accompaniment. Although she won't return to the stage until the end of the piece, Ahn started the show with a playful unpredictability that persisted through the piece. Ahn's choreography is distinct in its athletic and detailed blend of traditional Korean and pan-Asian dance techniques with contemporary dance forms and sensibilities. It is also a spectacle. In addition to the textured, undulating set, Ahn designed 150 costume pieces — there seemed to be a costume change nearly every other minute — that outfitted dancers in skirts and dresses that became increasingly elaborate over the 75-minute performance. Later, after leaping through the air with sweeping kicks, a dancer in an impossibly long black dress careened to the floor, then sprang back to their feet. They snapped the hem of their skirt to the floor with a flourish, and thousands of light specks exploded from the ground beneath them. Dancers moved about inside digitally created soap bubbles, images of clouds drifted across the stage, and rainbows formed on glistening circle skirts. For the most part, the dance and digital art enhanced each other, but a few moments that used the scrim as a video screen without live dancers onstage felt gratuitous. An extended montage of dramatic underwater portraits demonstrated the exceptional image quality the theater's projectors can produce, but was far less compelling than the charismatic dancers that had leapt weightlessly moments before. Advertisement A dance with a digitally created "bubble" in "Dragons" by Eun-Me Ahn. Jean Marie Chabot Over the course of the night, the audience learned quite a bit about the virtual dancers through audio recordings accompanied by projected subtitles — who they are, why they started dancing, and their hopes for the future — but gained no insight into the identities of the spectacular performers in the room with us. It conjured a sense of memorial for the isolation of lockdown, but left the current company's identity anonymous. The technical demands of this maximalist production included quick shifts of light, expertly mapped and timed projections, and numerous props along with the outfit changes. Wednesday's opening performance appeared seamless — thanks to the Pillow's Director of Technical Production Jason Wells and crew. The ever-changing costumes, lights, and projections contributed more style than substance, but the result was whimsical and eye-catching. Toward the show's end, in an especially beautiful moment, the live dancers sat downstage with their legs folded beneath them. Between each performer was an original dancer's hologram. With elbows folded, the dancers moved their arms decisively and slowly unfurled their hands. Bringing palms to thighs: slap-slap-slap, clap-clap-clap — everyone moved in perfect unison. The piece was a perfect showcase for the spectacular new Advertisement One foot stands on tradition, the other on innovation — just like Eun-Me Ahn. DRAGONS At Jacob's Pillow's Doris Duke Theatre, Becket, July 30 Sarah Knight can be reached at sarahknightprojects@
Boston Globe
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Opening Jacob's Pillow's season, Dorrance Dance stays true to the beat
Advertisement The stern yet buoyant Tomoe 'Beasty' Carr rotates her forearms with speedy precision; Fritzlyn Hector circles her arms, offers the audience her palms; Zakhele 'Bboy Swazi' Grabowski's handstand is more stable than funding for the arts. With fast feet, bent knees, and heavy arms, each dancer in the ensemble moves through and around the rhythm of composer Donovan Dorrance's score and John Angeles's live percussion, making visible the syncopated, polyrhythmic interplay between motion and sound. (Angeles and Michelle Dorance share roots in the percussion sensation 'Stomp.') "The Center Will Not Hold" at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival 2025. Christopher Duggan Photography A downcast square of light illuminates Dorrance and Asherie centerstage. They grasp hands but look away; they adjust their black cropped blazers rocking back on one leg; they look toward each other, but find no recognition in the other's eyes. Advertisement Behind them, three more pairs of dancers are revealed in similar dress. The swing of a knee, touch of a foot, and pulsing lift of the torso echoes quickly from one partner to the next with syncopated precision. Some of the best moments are when Angeles performs from inside and among the dancers onstage; he wears a snare drum holstered around his neck, which he beats insistently, twirling his drumsticks for a flourish. His punctilious and insistent rhythms are a worthy match for Dorrance's razor-precise taps that perch on the edge of control. Dorrance Dance has been blending tap with contemporary dance forms for years, but the meat has been percussive movement. This evening's vocabulary is just as much hip-hop as tap. If tap and hip-hop have something in common, it is a shared worship at the altar of 'The Beat.' Dorrance has been hinting at the intertwined histories of tap and hip-hop for years, but this piece, with one dance happening next to the other, reveals through proximity rather than fusion just how tangled the two are. 'The Center Will Not Hold' pairs tap with regional hip-hop styles from the East, West, and Midwest. With so many distinct hip-hop forms on one stage, the dancers are brought into conversation not by the saccharine promise of connection across difference (the dancers often look serious, keeping to themselves), but simply by performing near to each other. The roll of a torso echoes in the fluid locking of an arm; the dexterity of Memphis jookin is made audible by a tap shoe. Historically, tap and hip-hop are both Black American dance forms that originated as street dances — refined and expanded through improvisation and exchange outside the colonialist influence of the 'institution.' Advertisement Jacob's Pillow is nothing if not an institution, and for the festival to open its season with a tribute to the intertwining vernaculars of Black American dance traditions feels important, even if it arrived under the name of a white woman. But Dorrance has long understood this — hence the way she credits the work. The center will not hold, nor should it. THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD At Jacob's Pillow's Ted Shawn Theatre, Becket, runs through June 29. Tickets start at $65. 413-243-0745; . Sarah Knight can be reached at sarahknightprojects@
