Sweeping contemporary dance reveals the cycles of Vietnamese life

Realism merges with symbolic movement when seven dancers conjure agrarian cycles and rural rituals in The Mist, a contemporary work of exceeding beauty. Exploring the nuances of Vietnamese life, this striking company also draws on modern and ballet techniques in a country where contemporary dance is rarely taught or presented. In The Mist, Arabesque echoes the gradual change in Vietnam itself, as young artists work within their country’s history, traditions, and aesthetics to forge new forms of creative expression.

The Mist captures with a new language, the rhythms of our beloved Vietnam, the central place of rice, and the simple everyday rituals and rhythms that are at the heart of our culture.

 

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u.s. debut with center stage

tour overview

st. louis, MO - october 18-25

• Arabesque begins their tour in St. Louis with a week long residency at Washington University's Edison Theater. Here they will prepare for the U.S. premiere of The Mist and interact with students, faculty, and community members.
• They will perform on October 24th (information here) and October 25th (information here).

Washington, DC - October 27-30

• The group will have their State Department orientation and give a video interview on October 27th and 28th.
• They will perform on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage on October 29th -- information here.

Birmingham, AL - November 1-4

• Arabesque will participate in a residency co-hosted by Samford University and the Alabama Asian Cultures Foundation. They will have master classes with local dancers and meet various community members.
• The group performs on November 3rd at Samford University's Wright Center -- information here.

San Francisco, CA - November 6-10

• Center Stage arranged exchange program with Bay Area dance makers and companies including ODC/Dance (ODC participated in Dance Motion USA, a sister program to Center Stage). Details TBA

San Diego, CA - November 11-15

• Arabesque wraps up their Center Stage tour with a residency at ArtPower! at UC San Diego. They will participate in events with local ballet and modern dance companies as well as with campus students and faculty
• The group will perform on November 15 at Mandeville Auditorium -- information here.

about arabesque

Vietnamese Contemporary Dance Company, Arabesque, Forges New Path through The Mist

There is one independent contemporary dance company in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon): Arabesque. Under the Artistic Direction of Nguyễn Tấn Lộc, an alumnus of Tokyo’s Fujisato Ballet Company, and the guidance of Kiev-trained ballerina (Ngô Thụy Tố Như), this striking Vietnamese company has worked hard to find a new vocabulary of movement in a country where contemporary dance is rarely taught or presented. With pieces like The Mist, the ensemble aims to bridge the gap between the traditional —from folk dances to the small gestures that define everyday relationships in Vietnamese culture—and a global contemporary dance scene.

Now as part of Center StageSM, Arabesque will give American audiences a glimpse into the life of a country whose recent re-emergence is too often obscured by the lingering shadows of the past. The Mist is an evening-length contemporary dance piece inspired by Lộc ’s rural childhood and the tradition of Vietnamese rice farming. Tracing an arc from planting to harvest, The Mist alternates between more contemplative moments to dynamic ensemble sections, from free-form soundscapes to energetic rhythms pounded out emphatically with bamboo poles. Realism merges with symbolic motions, as eight dancers conjure the setting the company knows and loves to a recorded score and live music, building to the final coup de theatre, when a rain of rice floods the stage.

The Mist is an elegant reflection of the company’s overall approach, motivated by a desire to blend contemporary methods with local forms. “We wanted to bring something very Vietnamese to a festival in South Korea, but didn’t want to simply do a traditional dance,” Lộc recounts, recalling the group’s inspiration for crafting The Mist (Arabesque has performed in South Korea and Japan, but this is their first trip to the U.S.) “We wanted to have a traditional look, but with a contemporary breath to it. We brought the Vietnamese culture via dancing to people not familiar with it, with our own style. We saw then that we could introduce the look of Vietnamese life, as we are now.”

Center Stage is an exchange program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Exchange programs initiated by the Bureau support U.S. foreign policy goals and engage youth, students, educators, artists, athletes, and rising leaders in the U.S. and more than 160 countries. Center Stage uses the performing arts to support cultural understanding between American and international communities; participating artists experience the U.S. first hand and cultivate lasting relationships.

Arabesque is forging a new path—both as a contemporary dance company in a scene dominated mainly by traditional forms, hip hop and competitive ballroom dance, and as an independent private company in a landscape where large government-supported theaters and ensembles are the norm. Exploring the nuances of Vietnamese life, the ensemble’s work echoes a gradual change in Vietnam itself, as young people look to work within their country’s history, traditions, and aesthetics as they forge new forms of creative expression.

Lộc himself came relatively late to contemporary dance. He was only seven when the war in Vietnam ended. His father had worked for American forces, and his family had to move from Saigon to the countryside after the war. He had little exposure to the arts until he went back to Ho Chi Minh City as a young music student. Trained as an accordionist, Lộc became fascinated by dance and movement, creating his own pieces while finishing his arts schooling in Vietnam. Like many of his fellow dancers and choreographers in Arabesque, he gained the bulk of his experience in contemporary dance by going abroad and learning with dance companies in Europe or elsewhere in Asia.

Drawing on their international experience, the Arabesque artists are finding new language and platforms for their ideas, breaking through earlier decades of international isolation, as their homeland opens economically and culturally to the rest of the world. While young Vietnamese artists are looking outward, they remain tied to the wealth of traditions around them, particularly in the realm of dance and movement. Dancers still train in traditional forms, but are using them to their own expressive ends. “Vietnam has 54 ethnic minorities so we have a very rich culture of traditional dance,” Lộc explains. “I learned some of the basics of these dances, particularly the ones from the 35 groups in the highlands. Their movements tend to be very soft and smooth, very sweet. We draw on these basics in our work.”

In addition to some of the foundational forms of ethnic dance, Arabesque’s performers and choreographers explore their own experiences to find expression and a fresh language for long-standing cultural forms and concerns. “I use a lot of experiences from when I was a kid, when I was in my grandmom’s village, on her rice farm,” recalls Lộc. Together with choreographer Vũ Ngọc Khải (who trained everywhere from Hanoi to Holland) and Arabesque’s dancers, Lộc explored this fertile realm of gesture, posture, and feeling to build The Mist.

“The mist in Vietnam appears early in the morning, and we can see the drops, the mist, the dew on the leaves,” Lộc muses. “Then it rolls off and disappears. It happens every day again and again. Farmers are humble and beautiful, like the mist, and like the mist, no one notices them. But they are so important to Vietnamese life.”

Center Stage will bring seven ensembles from Morocco, Pakistan and Vietnam to the U.S. for month-long tours from June-December 2014, connecting artists with diverse communities across the country. Residencies will include performances, workshops, discussions, people-to-people exchanges, and community gatherings. Keep up with Center Stage on Facebook and on Twitter and at www.centerstageUS.org.

Center Stage is a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. It is administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, and supported by the Asian Cultural Council. General management for Center Stage is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.

press links

• Arabesque Press Kit
• Review of The Mist in Saigon Times: www.english.thesaigontimes.vn/32102/Arabesque%E2%80%99s-The-Mist---an-undeniable-masterpiece.html
• Photo Essay in Vietnam Pictorial: www.vietnam.vnanet.vn/vnp/en-us/13/44910/Arts/The-Mist.html

billing and crediting information

Arabesque
On tour as part of Center Stage

The following credit is required on the title page in all printer performance programs. We appreciate its use wherever else it's practical: brochures, posters, ensemble-only promotional materials, press releases, advertisements, etc:

The presentation of [name of ensemble] is part of Center Stage, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, produced by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations, with additional support from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council. General Management for Center Stage is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.

Center Stage logo placement is greatly appreciated. On web-based materials, please link from the Center Stage logo or written name to www.centerstageus.org.

Download a zipped folder of color and black and white version of the logo here.