XI YAN - HOMECOMING City Contemporary Dance Co Fringe Studio, June 19 To appreciate fully, or indeed understand, Xi Yan - - Homecoming, one needs to absorb the production in its entirety: its choreography, music and text.
The hour-long multi-media dance piece dwells not only on the theme of migration but also on feelings and sentiments associated with love and separation in general. The emotions of loss, sadness and happiness are translated into words (in poetic form) and movements.
Both Western dance and traditional Chinese operatic forms are employed and both are performed with great feminine sensitivity.
Act One, Surprising Dreams, begins while the audience is still queueing up to get inside the theatre. Suitcase in hand, Mandy Yim bids farewell to her loved one and ascends the stairs in slow motion. To judge from her expression, the dancer is obviously leaving a place she is very fond of.
Once inside, the audience is led through the dreamlike act first of all with a piece of melodic violin music before Chinese revolutionary singing takes over.
All this time the dancer is moving in slow, delicate ballet movements. Is this a dream? If so, it must be a nightmare.