IT makes more sense to think of the choreographer-dancer Sang Jijia not as a star but as an artist. Calling Sang a star casts him into a pop culture realm and lessens his true accomplishments. The New Stars Ensemble is, perhaps, a misapplied appellation. These are dancers working from a Chinese classical or folk dance idiom. Because these forms express a traditional cultural consciousness, they can pitch into the pedagogic, instructing and reinforcing standardised emotions. But they can also dip into excessive virtuosity or 'artified' acrobatics. Sang eluded these strictures and choreographed a thoroughly contemporary, meaningful, and sensitive work in his solo Confusion. He appeared white-skirted and bare-chested. He delicately charted a course where he questioned and abandoned any exclusive polarity in his sexuality. There seemed to be an interchange between yin and yang as his hands explored and discovered the surface of his skin and what and who he was. The music from Farewell My Concubine played into this surreal portrait and, dropping his skirt, he walked near-naked towards the full-length mirror and the image it promised. Sang's performance in Confusion was the more remarkable after seeing him bluster and strut in Breathless at Hujiang. Long-haired, bearded and warrior-like, he exploded into the air, flipped, rolled over, and sleekly rose up on his toes. He was fearsome, roiling his emotions into torrents of extremes. There was something of the spirit of Nijinsky in Yu Xiaoxue as he danced in the solo Wings, which he choreographed with Zhao Peiwu. Yu completely and utterly personified an ecstatic creature, his body unbelievably shaped into a bird. The effect was awesome. His pert twists and angles constantly reformed into new designs as he flounced about the stage, finding delight in his mere existence. It takes no book learning to realise how much has filtered from the Middle East into the Uyghur dance and music and it was clearly seen in the soft percussive accents of her head and whirlwind turns as Dili Naer embodied a living history in Girls of Xinjiang. Her appealing, darting eyes and flowery hands were the quintessence of a charm that beguiles. New Stars Ensemble, Chinese Dance Festival, November 5, Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre Theatre
