Sunday, February 13, 2000
Choreographer illustrates modern dance in 'Beholder'
Chen's demonstration breaks down barriers
BY CAROL NORRIS
Enquirer Contributor
How are you supposed to look at modern dance? If you need a little guidance in getting it, H.T. Chen says it's all about perception. What you see is what it is.
Other choreographers talk about their work being accessible but offer few tools to access their ideas. To break down the barriers, Mr. Chen gives lecture/demonstrations when his dance company, H.T. Chen & Dancers, visits a city. He wants to assure audiences there's nothing to be afraid of.
His company will present Eye of the Beholder Tuesday at the University of Cincinnati Raymond Walters College in Blue Ash. It's designed to demonstrate the elements choreographers use. Mr. Chen won't tell you how to look at modern dance, but will offer help in what to look for.
Changing the choice of music can take a heavy piece and make it light. Is the choreographer going for whimsy or mystery?
At the lecture-demo, his dancers will perform identical steps two different times. By altering the timing or spacing, they'll show how meanings can change. They'll be demonstrating the choices dance-makers have in creating works — and the variety of interpretations audience members can have — all valid.
Most tour dates by Chen & Dancers include week-long residencies with lecture/demos and community work.
“I feel that people in a community don't have a chance to touch modern dance. Maybe they have a local studio with tap dance or clogging or ballet, but not modern,” he says.
Making a connection
A sense of community runs through all his work, from Saturday classes for children in his Chinatown studio in New York, to sponsoring other choreographers and companies there, to inviting local dancers to perform when his company tours.
“That's our reputation. In our residences, we try to bring dance to people in the communities, to try to make a connection,” Mr. Chen says.
A pied-piper of modern dance, he hopes that when he presents to a group of children, one or two will leave the performance begging their moms to let them dance.
His wife and associate, Dion Dong, says starting the lecture/educational programs seemed like the perfect plan to keep the company in New York. With two young daughters, 8 and 12, the couple searched for ways to keep the dance group working at home.
“I thought this I can do home- based and won't have to go on the road,” Ms. Dong says.
Instead, the company is traveling as much as ever, averaging 25 weeks a year. The big difference is that what were once one-night concert stands have now become one-week residencies. And dance sponsors keep asking them back.
This is Chen & Dancers' third visit to Cincinnati.
“His is the only Asian-American company I know of,” says Contemporary Dance Theater artistic director Jefferson James, who has arranged all three visits. “I made a connection 15 years ago, and I'm delighted to see how his work has developed.
Draw on tradition
“Part of the appeal is the visual beauty onstage that H.T. creates. And part of it is the community connection,” Ms. James says.
Students from Schiel Elementary and School for Creative and Performing Arts plus volunteers drawn from the local Chinese community will perform in works his company is presenting in concert Friday and Saturday at the Aronoff.
The works, “Warriors of Light” and “Opening the Gates,” reflect a modern sensibility steeped in tradition.
“When you look at his works, which are certainly contemporary, you see a formality that's present in traditional Chinese dance,” Ms. James says.
“In order to be modern you must know tradition,” Ms. Dong says.
Eastern exposure
Mr. Chen was born in Shanghai but moved to New York 31 years ago to study dance at Juilliard. He decided to stay and work with the moderns, studying with Martha Graham and dancing with Anna Sokolow, but resisted youth's habit of throwing off the antiquated. Instead he incorporated ancient Chinese movements into his own.
Mr. Chen was one of the first Asians to choreograph modern dance in the early '80s and take it back to Asian countries for performances. Before that time, the East had very little idea what the American modern movement was all about.
“I'm not good at talking or writing or math — I just get into movement,” he says. And he feels compelled to bring the Chinese culture forward through dance. Ms. Dong says her husband is grounded in classical Chinese literature and traditions.
“I think it's very important as an individual that you know who you are and where you come from,” Mr. Chen says.
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