Friday October 21, 2011 - Beijing Dance Theater at BAM, presenting HAZE, an unsettlingly dark work by choreographer Wang Yuanyuan. Recently another Chinese company, Cloud Gate, brought WATER STAINS ON THE WALL to BAM. The contrast between the two works could not be greater: the one seems heavenly and the other hellish. Yet despite the intense images of the contemporary world that HAZE evokes, it is simply too long for what the choreographer has to say.
The performance took place at BAM's more intimate Harvey Theater, a noble wreck of a building left mainly un-renovated in the public spaces. New seating was installed and I must say it's singularly uncomfortable: the seats are too narrow, with no arm-rests, and there's little leg room. If you are unlucky enough to be seated next to an obese person you will not have a pleasant evening.
HAZE is a response to the pollution situation in modern-day China; though divided into three parts - Light, City and Shore - the setting, costumes and atmosphere remain the same for all three: a rough-hewn stone wall at the back with clouds of smoke billowing around the space. The dancers look marvelous in their sleek outfits, the men bare-chested. The lighting is excellent throughout.
For all this visual power, the music and the choreography simply don't add up to a satisfying 70-minute dancework. The Henryk Gorecki score, doleful and jaggedly thrusting by turns, is fine; it's the rather extended segments in which music of Biosphere is used that become random, and it is at these times that the work overall loses focus.
The floor is over-layered with rubbery sponge matting which 'gives' under the dancers' weight. This gives much of the dancing an off-kilter feeling which is interesting at first but later seems simply like a gimmick. With this surface, the choreographer feels safe in asking the dancers to fall, and they do...endlessly. It's stunning the first dozen times but over a 70-minute period with literally hundreds of falls it becomes a cliche. The dancers work superbly on the tricky surface but of course one exciting aspect of dance is to see a combination nailed with a flawless landing. Here the dancers tended to collapse as they finished each airborne pattern.
The work ends with a long section where the dancers stand perfectly still, facing the audience as a gentle snow falls. It's a lovely image, especially after all the active athleticism of the dancing up to that point. But it simply goes on too long.
My feeling is that HAZE would make a much more vital impression as a 30-minute work rather than a 70-minute one. The subject matter is important, the dancers are impressive, and if you stuck with Gorecki and left off Biosphere you'd have a pretty compelling dancework.
Choreography: Wang Yuanyuan
Music: Henryk Gorecki and Biosphere (selections)
Set : Tan Shaoyuan
Lighting: Han Jiang
Choreographer's Note: "Haze came into being as a creative response to the economic and environmental crises of early 2009. On a bare stage covered in thick sponge mats, the dancers strive to keep their footing in time with the brooding music contemporary sacred music of Gorecki later giving way the electronica of Biosphere.
The bare stage, challenging surface, and ponderous music frame the movements of the dancers, as they stumble, roll, fall, crawl and collapse on the uncertain terrain. The piece proceeds as a metaphor that links the environmental haze and pollution with the spiritual confusion involved in a time of social or individual crisis."