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Natasha Rogai

As If To Nothing
City Contemporary Dance Company
Kwai Tsing Theatre
Reviewed: Sept 25
This is a new, full-length work created for City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) by guest choreographer Sang Jijia, a celebrated dancer and choreographer on the mainland and former member of CCDC, who has also worked for several years with the renowned Forsythe Company in Frankfurt. He is known for his distinctive style of movement and it was interesting to see the CCDC dancers stretched - literally and figuratively - by his choreography. 
The subject of the piece is memory: what is real and what is imagined? The treatment is abstract, with an ingenious movable set  upon which people watch each other or exit and enter through doors or windows. The action is also enhanced by a clever use of live video that echoes and sometimes distorts the performances.
The choreography is supremely kinetic, with endlessly flowing movement  that requires the dancers to contort every part of their bodies. Scattered pieces of the puzzle come together then fall apart. 
Duets are almost like wrestling matches as couples interlock, hook legs and shove each other. The relentless motion is punctuated by striking moments where a single dancer freezes in a pose, often supported by one hand on the ground. Contrast is also provided by the stillness of observers who stand by and watch the action. 
While the piece scores on aesthetic and choreographic inventiveness, it is  lacking in emotion. CCDC's dancers, usually so individual, seem to have had their personalities erased to become parts of a machine producing human geometry. This may reflect Sang's experience with Forsythe, a notably cerebral choreographer, but the work would benefit from a better balance between IQ and EQ. Dickson Dee's electronic score is effective, if hard on the ears at times.
Technically, the company rose well to the challenge of performing material very different from their usual repertoire, led strongly by Xing Liang, a master of this type of movement. Jennifer Mok and Luo Fan  were also outstanding while Dominic Wong (left with Mok) deserves praise for retaining his expressiveness in such a clinical work.



As If To Nothing