Chiao-Ping’s ‘Serious Fun’ is witty, graceful

by Harriet Brown
The Capital Times, October 18, 2002

Whether your taste in dance runs to the tried-and-true traditional or to the deliriously post-modern, make sure you get out to see “Serious Fun,” the latest from Madison choreographer and dancer Li Chiao-Ping.

“Serious Fun” is an evening of real dance that doesn’t always take itself seriously. The three dances on the program offer a series of witty, thought-provoking takes on everything from gender roles to existentialism to country music. They are by turns hilarious and quietly graceful.

The performance opens with “Gó, Sides A + B,” the first half of which was part of the National American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center. “Gó” is filled with moments of shining visual clarity and pure fun. Six women wearing tutus and black ankle boots unfurl into a manic entymological stomp, to the dissonant rhythms of Henryck Gorecki. The vocabulary ranges from the soft, fluttering motions of “Swan Lake” to the rigid martial pumps and spins of a girl group on steroids.

The piece is a relentlessly anti-lyrical portrayal of gender roles, an exploration of femininity, strength and the price of not conforming. It’s a parody of parody itself, slyly poking fun at both traditional ideals of womanhood and its own raised-eyebrows poitn of view.

The costumes, by Chiao-Ping and Manal Stulgaitis, are well designed and witty, and a couple of costume changes are cleverly woven into the dance. At one point all six dancers sit, legs spread, heaving theatrical sighs of relief as they take off their heavy boots. The next moment they’re wearing their tutus in a way tutus were never meant to be worn.

The next piece is “momentous order,” a gorgeous improvisation that combines Chiao-Ping’s trademark acrobatics with a fluent graciousness. Alone on the stage, against the simple angles of Claude Heintz’s lighting, Chiao-Ping rolls and writhes, floats and reaches, sorros and rejoices. And, most of all, dances.

It’s a wonderfully evocative piece, and provides a nourishing counterpoint to the more cerebral aspects of the rest of the evening.

“Extreme Close-Up,” the only piece on the second half of the program, begins – amusingly – during the intermission, as a huge video screen is set up and other props are carried in. The ritualized actions on the screen segue neatly into the actions on the stage.

The multimedia ensemble piece uses video, live music and text, along with the company dancers and a group of community dancers, some of whom have studied dance and others of whom are clearly new to the stage.

A series of vignettes explores various aspects of physicality – seeing and being seen, smelling, feeling, experiencing. One vignette has a dozen or so dancers on their backs, side by side. A ripple of laughter begins, swells and explodes from the dancers, then turns to sadness and back to laughter again.

It’s a very concrete moment, which brilliantly captures the inherent contradictions and poignancy of being a human being.

“Extreme Close-Up” rambles a bit, but the rambling, too, is part of the celebration and the silliness of inhabiting a body, of being alive. Last night’s audience of about 180 was clearly with the piece, from its sly start to its surprising and touching finish

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