Cambodian Dance
There isn’t much more that I can say about the Cambodian Dance performance of The Magic Flute other than the fact that it was “intriguing.” Like many others have mentioned, at times it was a bit boring – however, in my opinion, that’s because much of it seemed repetitive. Also, unlike every other type of performance that we are used to, there were no spoken words, and therefore, not much distinguishable emotion. Since there were no spoken words, there were captions all throughout the show. However, captions do not give the same feeling as acted and spoken emotions: some of the phrases seemed cheesy when seen projected into writing, no matter how beautiful they may sound when spoken. Also, not only were some of the subtitles difficult to distinguish, but it was also difficult to both watch the dance and read the subtitles at the same time. Some may argue that because it was a dance, there must be some emotion – and I agree with that to some level. However, not only was there no emotion spoken out loud, but it seemed to me that the dancers also showed no emotion in their faces. Much of the dance was beautiful – but much of it was also routine. While it is a traditional dance form, they used it to depict the renown and popular story of the Magic Flute, using traditional costumes, as well as modern day stage effects. This can be compared to Zhang Huan, who portrays traditional Buddhist beliefs in his works of art, while using modern day techniques and views to create and contrast against them. The difference between the two is that while Sophiline Shapiro tries to have the traditional and the modern coincide by mixing them together, Zhang Huan seems to want to have the traditional and the modern complement each other by contradicting each other (if that makes any sense.)
October 15th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
your views were interesting. I think it definitely takes an effort to sit through a show like that and really appreciate it. anyways, nice post. =)
October 17th, 2007 at 12:49 am
Yo Jackie you are fly. Anyway, I agree with what you said, the dance was a bit unbearable at times & made me a little sleepy because not too much was going on. What you said about the modern and the traditional coinciding was exactly what I was thinking. We should watch some screechy Chinese opera. Or at least some buff men doing ballet.