Identity Performing Arts electrified audiences with their performance of “Muted,” running April 27-28 at the Ann Barzel Theater. The performance featured the return of “Enliven” (2023) and the premiere of “Muted,” both choreographed by founder and artistic director Ginny Ching-Yin Lo.
The evening opened with “Enliven” (2023), which will also be performed this upcoming June at the Seattle International Dance Festival. The work opened with Tiana Thompson swirling her arms and legs in smooth arcs. As the whole cast joined her on stage, they energized the space, leaping, swaying, and accenting with small arm gestures. Dressed in bright white and yellow long sleeves and flowy pants, the dancers lofted and flowed in harmony, delicate as dancing flames.
And yet there was an undeniable power to their movement. As the music traveled between strings, piano, and dynamic rhythmic sections, the dancers pulsed with an intensity and freedom. They leapt, cascaded, and spun with speed. In slower moments, the dancers had intimate solos. Lit in blue from above, their reflections appeared on the floor, creating an enchanting spectacle like swans dancing on water.
But overall, the energy never wavered. Ching-Yin Lo’s choreography was mesmerizing, expertly flowing through gorgeous shapes which we glimpsed for just seconds. The company dancers executed this choreography with finesse and clarity; they put passion into every movement, each moment a full-bodied expression. With “Enliven”, the Identity dancers coursed with a spirit that flickered, glowed, raged, and ultimately enraptured the audience.
The evening continued with the premiere of “Muted”, a new work by Ginny Ching-Yin Lo which explored her personal experience of “being muted, muting someone, and telepathic connection”. Once again, the piece opened with Thompson as a solo mover, but “Muted” displayed a vastly different scene. In a flash of white light, Thompson emerged from fog and wandered a desolate landscape of dancers lying on the ground.
“Muted,” with Audrey Hartnett; Photo by Peter Hinsdale
Thompson crackled with intensity, snapping through repetitive motions as other dancers jolted to life and began moving. The dancers wore white tops with mesh cutouts and baggy silvery pants. The air vibrated with electronic music, creating a futuristic, technological atmosphere. The dancers moved as if conducted by these rhythmic, reverberating sounds. They reached, pulsated, glitched, and fell, creating eerie angular shapes with their bodies.
The precision of their movements was astounding, as was the way they began to come together in unsettling ways. They formed a line which rippled to the ground like individual legs of a massive centipede. Like interlocking machinery or a hive mind creature, the dancers moved in succession, creating amorphous figures as two dancers rode atop four others who circled hunched over.
Yet amidst these moments the dancers seemed terribly alone. While the others circled with rhythmic steps, individuals stared out into the distance, scanning and vigilant. Groups of dancers crossed the stage, journeying towards a side light, hands pressed forward through space. Dancers moved under haunting spotlights to the sounds of aching drones, solo in a seemingly endless darkness.
This distance became even more apparent when pairs moved together, specifically in one duet between Mark Gonzalez and Amelia Harris. There was a sense of inner turmoil on both sides, and although they twisted close together and clasped hands, they rarely looked at each other, even when performing impressive complex lifts. Other times the dancers were militant and aggressive as they marched with high knees and shoved others with force.
With “Muted,” Identity dancers gripped the audience through an intriguing shadowy world of silence. They moved with impressive precision, sharpness and power, ricocheting and catapulting through the air. The most moving moments were those that captured the dancers’ isolation in a void of darkness. As the dancers scanned their landscape out towards the audience and away, they communicated without speaking as the lights faded to darkness.
Identity Performing Arts showcased two very different yet equally dynamic works, both executed with fervor. The performance surely left audiences captivated and eager to once again venture into the worlds of Ching-Yin Lo’s choreography.
For more information on Identity Performing Arts, click the company link below.
