Oakland Ballet Company Shines Brightly in Dancing Moons Festival
Theresa Knudson
Oakland Ballet Company’s Dancing Moons Festival was an ambitious program with works by 8 different choreographers, danced by 9 dancers. This impressive program highlighted the skills of the dancers of the Oakland Ballet Company, continuing a history of East Bay excellence.
The performance opened with Phil Chan’s The Ballet des Porcelaines or The Teapot Prince. The lost ballet, with score by Grandval, tells the story of a Chinese Sorcerer who lives on a blue porcelain island and turns any trespassers into porcelain, including a Prince. The Prince’s Princess comes to the island to save him by seducing the sorcerer to steal his wand, bringing her prince and all the captives back to life. In Chan’s version, the Chinese Sorcerer is portrayed as a European porcelain collector, who captures and collects people. The Prince and Princess are portrayed by Asian identifying dancers, thus taking back this narrative to reflect the history of Europeans stealing Chinese technology of porcelain manufacturing and appropriating Asian culture.
Phil Chan co-founded Final Bow for Yellowface with Georgina Pazcoguin to work towards undoing harmful stereotypes of Asian representation in ballet. Notably they have started a pledge, that many leading ballet companies have signed, to commit to eliminating outdated and offensive stereotypes of Asians on the ballet stage and rework ballets to respectfully represent Asian folks and culture.
In an online interview with the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU Chan draws a connection between European representation of Asian, specifically Chinese culture, through inanimate porcelain objects, which have led to images and stereotypes of Chinese and Asian folks in ballets like Nutcracker. Chan describes these porcelain Chinese dolls as having heads and hands on springs like bobble heads. This movement quality, projected onto Chinese folks through these porcelain designs, have been cemented in ballet through choreography mimicking the movements of these dolls, thus reducing the human representation of Asian folks to the likes of figurines. Chan takes great care with the research on this ballet from historical context, beautiful costuming, and a blending of classical ballet and traditional Chinese fan dance.
In the Saturday matinee performance of The Ballet des Porcelaines the dancers Karina Eimon, Logan Martin, and Lawrence Chen, danced the piece with exuberance and clarity. Eimon was a stand out with clean lines, generous port de bras, and emotional commitment throughout the arc of the story. Her intricate use of her supple spine completed each movement with fullness, finesse, and grace. Martin portrayed the collector with cheeky pomp that was well balanced between sophistication and humor. Chen excelled moving easily between precise technique and doll-like shutters. Overall, the storyline was easy to follow, and nice lighting touches from lighting designer Emma Rodrigues, like shattered glass gobos, helped clarify the plot as the Prince was set free from the porcelain.
The program then moved into the company’s latest collaborative effort entitled the Angel Island Project. As noted in the program and welcome speech, the Angel Island Project is a collaborative choreographic work by 8 choreographers, danced to a score by Huang Ruo. Ruo’s score was inspired by the poetry that was carved into the walls by Angel Island Immigration Station detainees over the span of 1910–1940. The program presented 3 of the 8 pieces: Seascape by Ye Feng, When We Bade Farewell by Ashley Thopiah & Lawrence Chen, and Last Chinaman From the Titanic by Natasha Adorlee.
Seascape by Ye Feng was a personal favorite of the entire evening. Florrie Sésé Geller opened the work with a technical and striking adagio, all done while balancing a wooden boat on her head. Furthering the breathtaking opening was the calm and regal entrance of Ashely Thopiah donning a braid that was several yards long. As the other dancers entered AL Abraham, Lawrence Chen, and Jazmine Quezada, the piece turned into a beautiful walking meditation- ballet adagio full of striking shapes and formations. Costumes were beautifully crafted asymmetrically wrapped teal pants and nude tops for both male and female assigned dancers that flattered the line of the body and movement equally. Each dancer moved in complete uniqueness without cluttering the images and tableaus. The tableaus created by this wonderful cast of dancers were enough to warrant a seaside photoshoot.
Several dancers manipulated the braid, still attached to Ashley’s head, to create shorelines, waves, and waterways that felt free, as well as borders and leashes that felt like bondage and captivity. Dancers performing floor work looked like waves lapping up to a braided shoreline. Many moments the braid was utilized like a cat’s cradle string game, or fan sheng, binding, bonding, and trapping dancers, and then simply unwinding with a turn. The group of dancers were always connected through sight, energy, eye contact, or touch. There was immense trust, and release from this cast of dancers, and I applaud the experimentation that had to have been done in the studio by both Feng and the dancers to achieve this beautiful work. At the end, Ashley’s braid is wrapped impossibly around her body, she succumbs in a Martha Graham like contraction that felt honest and painful.
When We Bade Farewell by Oakland Ballet Company dancers Ashley Thopiah and Lawrence Chen complimented Feng’s work, taking us to a new vision that highlighted the beautiful pointe work of the company women in the work: Eimon, Geller, Quezada, and Nicole Townsend. The work concluded with a pas de deux between Quezada and Abraham. The two dancers had a sweet connection, and were secure partners to each other. It was lovely to see the success of a particularly difficult partnered pirouette: Quezada smiled and released back into a cambre with full trust and elation. This work was musically sensitive and supported the emotions of this beautiful project.
Natasha Adorlee’s Last Chinaman From the Titanic began with wave-like upper body rocking, allowing for a smooth transition from the prior work. Natasha’s choreography breaks the meditation with ferocity of movement, audible breath cues, and bright red costumes. Chen and Abraham were standouts in this work with their balance between movements of camaraderie and combat, exciting partnering, and undeniable technical prowess.
After intermission, the company presented Excerpts from Exquisite Corpse, another choreographic collaboration that was based on a parlor game of the 1920s in which participants each draw one part of a body on a folded paper. Upon everyone taking their turn the paper is unfolded to reveal a haphazard and entertaining drawing of a person. The dance work was presented in 5 sections that included Quartet by Phil Chan, Solo by Phil Chan, Duet by Elaine Kudo, Duet by Seyong Kim, and Duet by Phil Chan again. Overall, the concept of utilizing different voices to create a random piece of work was interesting, however the imbalance of three of the works by Phil Chan versus two other pieces by two other choreographers actually took away the randomness of the piece as Chan’s voice was clear, bright, cohesive, and wildly entertaining. The work as a whole felt disjointed, rather than each piece feeling like a fresh surprise. Individually, each work presented was fantastic. Chan’s choreographic contributions brought out confidence and happiness in the dancers. Geller sailed through her strong and balanced turns, Townsend soared in her saut de chats. In the Duet Townsend and Abraham engaged in a friendly competition of everything from rock, paper, scissor like hand games, to fouettes into death drops. This duet looked like it was a joy to create and a joy to dance.
Chan’s stand out work however was the Solo he created for Chen. We were transported, and this solo drew engagement from the audience in cheers and applause. Chen stunned the audience, opening the solo with what seemed like an endless pirouette (I lost count). Chen was in complete control of this solo, with a mix of ballet bravura, casual happy dances you would see at a family friendly party, and an aura of joyous confidence.
The Duet by Elaine Kudo presented Quezada living in her beautiful extensions and lines, and Martin partnering her beautifully. The dancers looked powerful and grounded in this duet. There is another tonal shift with Seyong Kim’s Duet with music by Bach. Knowing the skill of Seyong’s own dancing, I could see his technicality, grace, and musical sensitivity shine through in his choreography of this duet for Thopiah and Alexander Griffith.
The final work of the evening was entitled Layer Upon Layer by Caili Quan. Costumed beautifully by Christopher Dunn, and dramatically lit; the dancers Chen, Quezada, and Thopiah moved seamlessly through long moments of silence into various excerpts of music. The opening statement from Artistic Director Graham Lustig indicated the piece was inspired by Quan’s family heritage.
The Dancing Moons Festival 2024 was about 2 hours and 10 minutes in length. This is an incredible feat for the small, but mighty cast of only 9 dancers. I commend each of the dancers for giving so much to their craft, to this program, and to the voices of the 8 choreographers that were included on this very ambitious program. Congratulations to Oakland Ballet Company on Dancing Moons Festival 2024!
Theresa Knudson is a dancer, producer, and director based in Oakland, CA. She is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of Ballet22, and the owner & director of BlackBox Studios.
