Displaying items by tag: Identity Performing Arts

A collaboration of Chicago dance and Germany lighting sculpture live on stage

About the Program:

This program, set within an industrial vibe, features Vicissitudes, choreographed by Ginny Ching-Yin Lo. Vicissitudes premiered in fall 2021, debuting Identity Performing Arts' first live performance in C5. In a novel approach, Vicissitudes was created in silence, with music then composed from the dance piece by Identity's first collaborator Chromabeats. Through the supportive web of human connection. Portrayed through four female dancers, this dance expresses how the web of human connection helps us cope with stress, in joy.  

Lights/9 is a collaboration with Franz Betz, renowned light artist from Hanover, Germany. This improvisational piece integrates nine elements of intertwining movement and light, accented by Chromabeat’s live music. The concept for Lights/9 was inspired by choreographer Ginny Ching-Yin Lo's visit to Zurich, Switzerland. Fascinated by an exhibition of light installation, she did an improv dance right on the spot. As this thought dwelled, she created Lights/9: improvised dance, as an invitation to experience the unknown.

About Identity Performing Arts:

Identity is a not-for-profit organization established in 2016 by founder and artistic director, Ginny Ching-Yin Lo, focusing on teaching dance to the underserved community and creating independent dance projects. Lo has performed in the U.S., China, France and Germany with her original works. In 2020, Identity expanded beyond teaching and transitioned to a full season professional dance troupe. The company's first live concert debuted in fall, 2021. Since then, Identity has performed locally in Chicago and Evanston, and internationally in Hanover, Germany. Identity was one of the featured companies appearing on WGN Morning News TV for See Chicago Dance Month last summer.  Identity is excited to present Enliven & Perpetual in Seattle International Dance Festival this summer along with companies, globally.  All works created for and performed by Identity dancers express the beauty of our individual identities, interconnected in unity. We invite you as our audience to witness this intention with every dance work.

Dates/Times/Location

C5 Studio - 5066 N Kimberly Ave, Chicago, IL 60630

Tickets @$30

Book on Eventbrite:

Friday, May 17 @7.30 PM

https://Lights9Fri.eventbrite.com

Saturday, May 18 @7:30 PM

https://Lights9Sat.eventbrite.com

 For more information, call 312.600.3076 or visit

https://www.identityperformingarts.org/

Identity's Spring concert offers a captivating performance with two dissimilar works in its dynamic. Join us for the premiere of choreographer Ginny Ching-Yin Lo’s newest work Muted. 

The program features the return of Enliven, premiered fall 2023, highlighting energy in motion. This East/West fusion dance work will also be performed at the Seattle International Dance Festival (SIDF) this summer. Identity received wonderful reviews from Buzz News and See Chicago Dance of Lo’s Enliven.

In contrast with Enliven, Muted explores the complexity of being muted, muting someone, and telepathic connection. This dance reflects a collective flashback of being muted and/or muting someone.  A powerful piece, this asks us to consider how aggressive and passive outer facade may not reflect the real situation, as communication within relationships connect without a word. 

This Spring concert offers two performances only, April 27 at 7:30pm and April 28 at 3pm, both at Visceral Dance Studio. Tickets are easy to book on Eventbrite; walk-ins may be available.

About Identity Performing Arts:

Identity is a not-for-profit organization established in 2016 by founder and artistic director, Ginny Ching-Yin Lo, focused on teaching dance to the underserved community and creating independent dance projects. Lo has performed in the U.S., China, France and Germany with her original works. In 2020 fall Identity expanded beyond teaching and transitioned to a full season professional dance troupe. The company's first live concert debuted in fall, 2021. Since then, Identity has performed locally in Chicago, Evanston, and internationally in Hanover, Germany. Identity was one of the featured companies appearing on WGN Morning News TV for See Chicago Dance Month last summer.  Identity is excited to present Enliven in Seattle International Dance Festival this summer along with companies, globally.  All works created for and performed by Identity dancers express the beauty of our individual identities, interconnected in unity. We invite you as our audience to witness this intention with every dance work.

Saturday, April 27 @7.30 PM

https://Muted.eventbrite.com

Sunday, April 28 @3.00 PM

https://MutedMartinee.eventbrite.com

Visceral – Ann Barzel Theater

 For more information, call 312.600.3076 or visit

https://www.identityperformingarts.org/

It was such a pleasure to see a Chicago not for profit dance company, Identity Performing Arts, now in its seventh season, meet such high levels of ballet and modern dance!

With several choreographed pieces by Founder and Artistic Director Ginny Ching-Yin Lo under her belt, the premiere of Enliven will mark her 10th creative work. Lo, born in Hong Kong and trained with the Hong Kong Ballet, is both a choreographer and dancer whose works have been performed in the US as well as in China, France, and Germany.

I can't say enough about the sensual and energizing choreography by Ginny Ching-Yin Lo!

In her own words…

Perpetual

This piece premiered in Spring 2023. Perpetual reveals the delicate balance between our dual natures. Experience the angelic and the demonic, all under the veil of ethereal love, harmoniously juxtaposed and eternally connected. While precisely executed, this piece was beautifully fluid and, in many moments, hypnotic, and was the perfect opening segment for what the rest of the performance was to offer. 

Ginny has a great gift for staging and creating multiple levels of emotional depth and the feeling of synchronicity in action for her talented group of nine dancers.

Kindred

There was an interesting and refreshing 15-minute multi-media short film presentation by director Spence Warren of the premiere of Ching-Yin Lo's piece titled Kindred.

Kindred is a celebration of the merging and new possibilities that arise when individual artists get together to collaborate creatively.  

The short film was shot in one 8-hour day in a sunny private home with dancers striking beautiful and sometimes somber poses on common objects like stairwells, tabletops and even on top of beds, which gave this piece a modern identifiable setting that made you realize that our homes can also be a place for the physical expressions of creative dance.

Enliven

The final third of the program was Lo's premiere of her newest piece Enliven.

I am including the music choices for this piece because they were so striking and perfect with Ginny Ching-Yin Lo’s flowing, powerful and sexy choreography; Enliven Music: “Lemon Tree” by Jingxuan (Guzheng) and Felix Nunes (Cello), “China Wind” by Zhuolin Wang, “Fusion” by Estas Tonne”, “Abundance” by Future of the Forestry, “Glittery Green Vibrations” by Wilson Hicken and “Mortise & Tenon” by Young Yan.

I would like to acknowledge the dancers, all of whom were classically trained and surpassed my high level of expectation for a dance troupe under Lo's direction. The dance ensemble included Josephine Castillo, Mark Gonzalez, Mackenzi Bolyard-Pizaῆa, Amelia Harris, Audrey Hartnett, Wilson Hicken, Hayley Midea, Hanley Simpson, and Tiana Thompson.

While the two male dancers were clearly skilled and dynamic in their own right, it was the seven women in this troupe that really exuded full expression of this stunning and complex choreography and were just fascinating to watch. Also, the use of lighting for both live works performed was perfectly managed to effectively heighten the experience, creating dream-like sequences.

Ginny Ching-Yin Lo states that her mission is to create dance that addresses "universal societal issues and affirms the values of our individual and community diversity with the intent to heal and restore." And I really felt a sense of meditative restoration and exuberance while enjoying this program. Lo has achieved and will continue to achieve her goal of "healing and restoring" the senses by reminding her audiences of the healing qualities of eternal and ethereal love in motion.

Recently performed at Ruth Page Center for the Arts and again this past weekend at Studio5 in Evanston, I highly recommend this exciting, stimulating yet peaceful dance program and future performances by Identity Performing Arts to audiences of ALL ages for dance lovers who are accustomed to seeing high quality ballet and modern dance.

For upcoming events and more information on this wonderful dance company, visit www.identityperformingarts.org.

This show, performed at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts, was promoted in Buzz Center Stage (www.buzzcenterstage.com) last month as an upcoming event, and here’s the skinny on the actual performance. Spoiler alert! It was terrific – but let me share some details.

We were greeted at the door by the choreographer, Ginny Ching-Yin Lo – she was obviously thrilled about this premiere of her tenth and latest work, ENLIVEN. This friendly personal introduction was characteristic of the entire show – IDENTITY is committed to connecting with their audience. Filmmaker Spence Warren took time to speak with us both before and after the show. He sat near us and I loved watching as he bopped and wriggled through the performance, clearly very invested in the action.

IDENTITY PERFORMING ARTS is a very diverse company:  Josephine Castillo, Mark Gonzalez, Mackenzi Bolyard-Pizaῆa, Amelia Harris, Audrey Hartnett, Wilson Hicken, Hayley Midea, Hanley Simpson, and Tiana Thompson were all onstage variously through the evening. Their minimalist costumes brought uniformity to their diversity, rendering each individual genderless and monochromatic, it is characteristic of IDENTITY to showcase each dancer’s personal brilliance while melding them into a unified whole.

The choreography was totally unique: balletic, gymnastic, flexible, and asynchronous. My companion was reminded of Cirque du Soleil – though I’ve not seen Cirque myself, I find his comparison apt. Individually and corporately, the dancers were agile, buoyant, and ever graceful. Even their most ethereal and flowing passages were imbued with a singular vivacity, a brio and zeal that spoke eloquently of each artist’s love for what they do.

Spence’s fifteen-minute film KINDRED was sandwiched between performances. In it they danced through various rooms of a (perfectly gorgeous) modern home: Pliés and port-de-bras using the dishwasher as a barre, fold overs in the living room, and several maneuvers in the bathroom. Oh dear – I’m not making this sound very good, but it was absolutely magical! Seeing the dancers perform in a home rather than on a stage personalized the work, ‘bringing it home’ in a literal sense. Eit seemed even more magical when Spence admitted to us that the entire series had been filmed in a single 8-hour day!

Ginny Ching-Yin Lo is IDENTITY’s founder, choreographer, and Artistic Director. Her works have been performed in France, Germany, and China as well as the US. It is IDENTITY’s mission to ‘connect, create, and affirm’, using dance to express societal issues and heal the community.  Since its founding in 2016 IDENTITY has striven to carry dance to the underserved, to those who have limited access to its magnetic appeal.  

There is but one additional performance of ENLIVEN, Saturday 18 November at Studio5 Dance Center in Evanston. And keep watch for Spring and Fall performances in 2024!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED