Let’s Dance

Week 39 : Notes

Let’s celebrate this locked-down New Year’s Eve by dancing away the end of 2020. There are dances here for everyone, traditional, classical, hip hop or vogueing, your choice.

Thousand-Hand Bodhisattva was created by Zhang Jigang, an internationally acclaimed Chinese choreographer and Lieutenant General in the People’s Liberation Army. Hula is a Polynesian dance form developed in the Hawaiian Islands and accompanied by chants. Kayli Ka’iulani Carr, won the Merrie Monarch Festival in 2016 and was named Miss Aloha Hula. This is the traditional dance and chant denounced by American Protestant missionaries in the early 19^th century but revived during the reign of King David Kalākaua (1874–1891) to become a tourist spectacle in the 1950ies. In 1964 the Merrie Monarch Festival became the world’s most respected hula competition showcasing this ancient, sacred art form. The inspiration of Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen is the concept of biomimicry where systems and materials are modelled on biological processes. The performance which meshes her fashion and dance is executed by Jingjing Mao, a Chinese dancer and member of the Dutch National Ballet since 2010. Elizabeth Marie Tallchief (1925 – 2013) was USA’s first major prima ballerina. She was born on a reservation in Oklahoma, her father was a member of the Osage Nation. She was the first Indigenous American ballet dancer and has revolutionized this genre in the USA. Vogueing is a competition—part communal, part personal statement—that started in the 1980s and is a danced expression of the LGBTQ scene. Then watch Viktoria Modesta, Latvian born, British model, singer-songwriter and performance artist, do her spike dance. The next dance number is the first invitation in this programme to join in. Katherine Ryan, Russell Kane Shappi Khorsandi and many others dance to Taylor Swift’s song ‘Shake It Off’. How the love of hip hop brought five young Japanese women to Los Angeles is told next followed by British singer and activist M.I.A’s video ‘Broader Than A Border’. Directed by herself, the female dancers performing with swords and sticks were filmed in Kolhapur city of Maharashtra, India; the male dancer in the Ivory Coast, West Africa. Members of the China Disabled People’s Performing Arts Troupe are the dancers and musicians of “Thousand-hand Bodhisattva,” the film that opened the programme. Now it’s time for another dance and sing-along, this time in the Antwerp Central Station in Belgium. What might seem rather crowded from today’s viewpoint was filmed in 2016, while Jerusalema challenge (for those, who watched last week’s programme, the tune will sound familiar) is danced by hospital personnel in 2020, definitely complying with all Covid19 regulations and it is surely an opportunity to join in. Let the music carry you away and let’s dance into a better 2021!