Gotham, a festival
Katherine Knight
Living in Philadelphia, I have great access to upcoming choreographers and easy access to New York City. I followed a few dance companies to uptown Manhattan to see Dance Gotham a festival, that housed two Philadelphia based companies. Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers and Koresh Dance Company were my main attractions. Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers opened the show with Crossing, an excerpt of his newest work. It featured six dancers in a scene representing the fast paced lifestyle of city goers. They were costumed in classic business suits, but did not move in the strict limiting movement associated with the business world. In typical fashion, Kun-Yang constructively used a combination of postmodernist pedestrian movement, classic modern technique, and the grace of Tai Chi. The stage offered intricate movement phrases, with brisk entrances and exits. The music consisted of commonly heard street sounds such as car horns, breaks, shoes on the pavement and a murmur of conversation between strangers passing. Divided into three sections, the second featured a single dancer moving gracefully in a way that completely opposed the feel of the other two. It was successful in breaking up the fast paced, hurried feel of the surrounding sections. Kun-Yang’s choreography appeared to be another success and I am anxious to see the full work being shown at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Theatre next month.
Closing the show was Koresh Dance Company, founded in 1991 in Philadelphia. This company, in addition to the dance school, has been up and coming under the direction and choreography of Ronen Koresh. Standing in Tears was a classic showing of Ronen’s work, displaying intense movement accompanied by upbeat music ranging from African music to Spanish beats. The eight dancers were clad in white oxford shirts, females in black shorts, while the men wore black pants. The piece seemed to be centered around one female dancer who initiated the piece in a dominating manner, demanding her dancers to start. The movement was aggressive and filled with technique, featuring high kicks, and ballet pas de bourrees mixed into jazz sequences. As if to break character, the piece was broken up by the dancers yelling into the audience and asking that the house lights be turned on. They talked to friends in the audience and even took pictures with one girl’s camera on stage. The dancing continued once again by the command of one dancer. The ending was just as dramatic as the beginning with all eight dancers strutting to the front of the stage and staring intensely into the eyes of the audience. Ronen offered another very entertaining, visually appealing show, even for the non-dancers in the audience. Ronen’s work can be seen at various venues throughout the city, including showings right in the Koresh studio on Chestnut Street.
My trip to the Big Apple was well worth it. I am always happy to support Philadelphia dance companies and was, as usual, impressed by what I saw. Both works vary greatly from each other, which truly represents the artistry that comes out of Philadelphia. Both were immensely entertaining and left me wanting more. These two choreographers are not hard to find either. Kun-Yang can be found teaching at Temple University on a daily bases, while Ronen can be found at the University of the Arts and at Koresh Dance School. I look forward to seeing Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers perform at Annenberg Center, and Koresh Dance Company perform in fundraising shows throughout the next month.