Willow Chang (Hawaii)

As an artist and as an educator, Willow Chang is constantly challenging and questioning herself: What is identity? Who and what influences form it? How does one find the balance between creation, innovation and tradition? How can one find ways to blend seamlessly the fusion of multiple cultures, disciplines and experiences? And, do we always need to be seamless?

Performance demonstration “Fire, Earth, Air”

Dancer, Choreographer, Costuming: Willow Chang

Music: Fire Burning Festival (O-Hitaki Matsuri)/ Japanese Shinto priests

Frog Chorus/ Music and ceremony from the Shuar

Emmeleia/ Dead Can Dance

Rising/ Lhasa Original

Painting: Stephen Little

Where does a journey of the heart begin or end? Here is a meditation to purify, honor and reflect on the complexities of love and the embodiment of the Shiva cycle of Birth, Life, Death and Re-Birth. This journey includes the transformation of the experience of calm within to extreme saudade (longing) when being on 'the edge' the only relief is release.

“I got caught in a storm

And carried away

I got turned, turned around

I got caught in a storm

That's what happened to me

So I didn't call

And you didn't see me for a while

I was rising up

Hitting the ground

And breaking and breaking”- Lhasa

Fire, Earth, Air is a continuous set of dances that shows the journey and transformation of an individual, expressed in both physical gestures/movement and emotional and even a psychological shift. A song and dance cycle, it features several contrasts/shifts that are representative of:

1) Purification Ritual/ claiming or marking of the Space (here, represented by the Japanese Shinto Fire Ritual chant and the marking of a circular, sacred space).

2) The shift of Regulated/structured behaviors (Human/intentional) to Unstructured/Natural responses (prompted by the music of the Frog chorus).

3) The Recovery/ Ritual 2- i.e. an attempt to regain control with the acknowledgement that some shift has occurred.

4) The Release- A narrative song expressing being carried away- my emotion, and the subsequent expressions of longing, grief and sadness, only to be resolved by Release and surrender (acceptance, acknowledgement or even Death).

The intention is to re-introduce these ideas and themes into the realm of what can be called theatrical dance. Willow Chang is very interested in the ways of integrating Ritual into dance along with the presentation of a psychological and emotional shift. Every choice is made based with this goal in mind- from music to movement, costumes to staging - each decision must support the other.

"Truth Through Movement: Cross Cultural and Energy Exchange"

Practical workshop

Movement workshop to contrast 3 energies: the Butoh inspired pace of the Fire Ritual and examination of different types of walks, the exploration of animal/creature like movement and the art of turning which is an nod to what I call the Urban Dervish.

A Review/Overview of the art of Mudras, hand gestures that are used both in sacred practice and dance. We can explore traditional ones with Sanskrit names from South East Asia and well as the creation of modern hand gestures and articulation as an extension of the body and the inclusion as an expressive tool.

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