Give “Spring Footholds: Streams” an A++ for diversity, which is the most obvious charm of this University of Hawaii dance concert. The program features original works by eight student choreographers ranging from Sami L.A. Akuna, who brings gender-bending, drag queen-inspired fare to the stage with his hilarious “Kiss”; to Nezia Azmi and Annie Reynolds, who team up to present the elegant filigreed footwork of “Legong Bapang Saba,” a classical Balinese dance.
Somewhere between those extremes of choreographic sensibility, there is Faith S. Im with “Perishable,” an edgy dreamscape evocation of modern materialism; Charlaine Katsuyoshi’s “Play Date,” with the sweet lightness and lofty leg extensions of ballet; Amy Bukarau with “We Move,” an apt title for a piece with gutsy athleticism; and Toni Pasion and Keoni Brache, who do a take-your-breath away hula to the George Gershwin ballad “Someone to Watch Over Me.”
Admittedly, the diversity of “Footholds” should come as no surprise. Being at the Asia-Pacific crossroads makes chocka-block fare a local standard, whether we are talking about the isles’ fondness for bentos or butoh. The UH Department of Dance and Theatre has remained true to upholding diversity with curriculum combining Japanese Kabuki, Indonesian shadow puppet theater, hula, Limon modern technique, Chinese opera and more. In the “Footholds” concert series (a twice-yearly presentation), students are always demo-ing just how much they absorb the aesthetic of diversity by busting out unexpected juxtapositions of styles that would raise purist eyebrows elsewhere.
But here’s something that is new and surprising in the 2016 “Spring Footholds”: collaboration. It’s stunning to note the collaborative interplay between the dancers and the student technicians who pack the choreography with the added power of props and projection design, kaleidoscopic lighting, and complex soundscapes of layered musical choices.
What we have here is not just dance but sensory storytelling made possible by student mastery of 21st-century stagecraft enhanced by digital media. A stunning example of this comes in the open number, “Travelling Through Us,” choreographed by Camille Monson. A long white sheath is transformed from a flowing train of a goddess’s gown to a trap for a series of characters, who wriggle to be free from the towering figure of careless grace. You got to see it to feel it, and as hard as the dancers work, the feeling of the piece owes so much power to how much the dancers and technicians are utterly in sync with one another.
Definitely, this is not your mother’s college dance department recital, unless your mother earned an MFA at a college program specializing in MTV-influenced dance studies, which is not entirely out of the range of possibility. Thanks to the advent of MTV some 30 years ago, dance has gone vitally viral around the world and in our everyday lives and has legs into so many other disciplines of art and technology. Check out “Footholds” and enjoy the latest leaps of muscle and imagination that UH’s most talented stage performers have taken into this fun and stimulating frontier of creative expression.
‘SPRING FOOTHOLDS: STREAMS’
Dance concert featuring student choreography by the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Theatre and Dance:
>> Place: Earle Ernst Lab Theatre, 1770 East-West Road Honolulu
>> Time: 2 p.m. today
>> Note: Tickets to “Spring Footholds: Streams” may be purchased online at etickethawaii.com, by phone at 944-2697, at official outlets, and at the Kennedy Theatre Box Office during sale periods only.
>> Visit: manoa.hawaii.edu/liveonstage/springfootholds/
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Liza Simon is a Honolulu-based freelance writer and lifelong dance enthusiast. A graduate of Barnard College, she is currently a graduate student with a focus in arts education at the UH College of Education.
