8 PHILADELPHIA FREE PRESS • UC REVIEW • NOVEMBER 18, 2015
KYL/D Company tells the South 9th through dance in HOME
By Nicole Contosta Staff Reporter
D
oes home represent a specifi c memory or a particular location? How does the concept of home change for immigrants trying to preserve their cul- tures while assimilating into a new one? Kun-Yang Lin’s world Premier of HOME this
week explores those themes beginning this Thursday, November 19th
contemporary dance in his performances.
. Presented by
the Philadelphia Fringe Fes- tival, HOME runs through November 21st lumbus Blvd.
For those not familiar with the KYL/D companies work, its inventive chore- ography pushes the limits of national identity. Artistic Director Kun Yang blends Eastern philosophies and
at 140 N. Co-
And the world premier of HOME/South 9th
Street
proves no exception. “Research for this proj- ect goes back to 2013,” explained Ken Metzner, the Executive Director of KYL/D from the studio’s headquarters at 1316 S. 9th Street. Throughout our early morning interview, the mu- sic and movement from local neighbors taking a Zumba class in the next room punc- tuated the conversation. KYL/D for those not in the know—off ers a host of class- es for both professional and non-professional dancers. Seeds for HOME were planted during a 2013 trip to Indonesia, Metzner contin- ued of the journey he, Kun Yang and Dr. Nancy Watter- son, of Cabrini College took. “We like our work to be challenging,” Kun Yang ex- plained, adding, “We often invite scholars to participate in the practice because we want to create a culmination of body, mind and spirit. This is called Chi aware- ness.”
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For HOME, part of the piece’s Chi Awareness came directly from the South 9th Street community. The neighborhood has always remained rich with immigrants. And as Kun Yang and Metzner real- ized through their research, there’s a very logical ex- planation. From 1860-1913, there was a miniature Ellis Island Station at Washington Avenue where it intersected with the Delaware River. Historically, immigrants fl ooded the South 9th
Street
neighborhood for that rea- son. And in recent decades, they have continued to do so due the immigrant popula- tions already there. Because the neighborhood
has remained a home for immigrants, Kun Yang and Metzner interviewed 65 im-
Zagat Survey “Destination Award 2003”
Kun-Yang Lin Dancers in HOME/S. 9th
migrants from the neighbor- hood for HOME. “We wanted to create a collective voice,” Kun-Yang said. “But how do you trans- late that into dance…how do you put 65 voices into one voice?” Kun-Yang con- tinued, explaining, “Dancing is an abstraction of that…It gives a visual to the feeling you cannot explain.” Subsequently, HOME does not tell a narrative story. “It’s not linear, and it does not tell a particular cul- ture’s story either,” Metzner explained. Rather, “it travels between the past, the future, the present and back again.” The immigrants weren’t
BYOB St. Photo: Frank Bicking
just interviewed and pushed out of the process, Metzner noted. Instead, they par- ticipated in community dia- logues and attended shorter performances of the piece as it developed at venues such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Temple University as well as at the Italian Market Festival last May. Throughout HOME’s for- mation, practice and execu- tion before audiences, Kun- Yang has stressed the impor- tance of Chi Awareness. “It’s a philosophy,” Kun-
Yang said. “It’ s how we open ourselves and our energy so there aren’t any boundaries. People who don’t have Chi aware- ness, that’s when you feel like there’s a wall between people.” Kun-Yang also asks his
dancers to cultivate Chi awareness. “The company is very demanding of our dancers and their ability to tap this energy.” It’s an energy the compa- ny would like the audience to experience as well. KYL/D’s Artists include Evalina Carbonell, Brian Cardova, Annielille Gavino- Kollman, Helen Hale, Mo Liu Wei Wei Ma, Grace Stern and Jessica Warchal-King. The performances will
run at the Fringe Arts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd, 11/19- 11/21 at 8 p.m. with a 3 p.m. matinee on 11/21. Tickets range from $15-$29. For more information about the show: 215-413-1318, www.
fringearts.com. For more information on KYL/D: 267- 687-3739, http://kunyan-
glin.org.
Street immigrant experience
Welcome to the Opening of our New
Location!
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