Encore Chamber Music Institute presented an unusual dance piece as part of their special winter event on December 17th at the Dodero Center for Performing Arts, located in the Gilmore Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio.
The program opened with a pre-performance holiday set, a recital of the Graham Yates’ Christmas Trio No. 3, performed by director of the Encore Chamber Music Institute, Jinjoo Cho, on violin, Max Geissler on cello, and Shuai Wang on piano. The virtuosic performance of this delightful medley of tunes was a perfect introduction to this unique holiday festival.
The trio was followed by the Korean dance company, Collective A, based in Seoul. It presented an interesting literary dance piece inspired by the movements of water. The initial soundtrack used for the improvisations was produced by the sound of water dripping from large chunks of ice suspended above a glass cauldron.
Cha Jinyeob, choreographer for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, founded Collective A in 2012. It invites creators, dancers and artists of various disciplines to explore and research how different micro perspectives transform into new experiences and discoveries when reconstructed together. The group is especially known for going beyond the traditional forms of performance — breaking barriers of limited space, genre, and format. Ultimately, Collective A aims to challenge the meaning and limitations of the interdisciplinary arts and its limitations.
The bare stage was hung with huge blocks of ice encased in netting hanging from the rafters. The lighting and sound design were as important as the dancers in delivering the concepts behind the performance. Lighting designer Kim Ikhyun’s original lighting designs and Haihm’s sound design were as important as the performers themselves. The first sounds came from the amplification of the melting ice as the dancers improvised movements synched to the sounds of dripping water. Perhaps the purpose of Cha Jinyeob’s work was to illustrate the importance of water to humans on a molecular and environmental level — from ice to droplets to torrents to evaporation to the calamity of drought.
The dancers not only performed to water, but they became liquid in their visual eloquence. The first half, with Yoojung Hahm and Lee Jungmin, was excellent. Ham and Jungmin captivated the audience both in solo and in duet. Jungmin used humor to connect with the audience — drinking the water from the cauldron with cupped hands after his feverish solo.
Cha Jinyeob’s bravura solo performance in the second half was stunning. Jinyeob is as skilled a dancer as she is an imaginative choreographer. The performance broke the language barrier by using themes that were universal and required no translation. It’s no wonder that Jinyeob was chosen to choreograph for a global audience in the 2018 opening and closing Olympic ceremonies.
Collective A fulfilled the Core Practices of Encore’s tenets perfectly: broadening definitions, collaborating with underserved populations, and connecting art with other disciplines and themes.