The Finale

The show, “Echo and Flame/Feng Huang Awakens” and subtitled a Celebration of KYL/D and a Sunset Concert began softly with two sections of a longer 2000 work, “Land of Lost Content.” It ended with an explosion of taiko drumming that seemed to set the stage afire.

Inspired by the struggles of the Tibetan people, “Pilgrimage/Compassion” opened with the soft rings of Buddhist bells, the dancers in flowing saffron, partially dropping knees and rising rapidly to full body length, one arm raised. The company of eight moved diagonally from stage right to left, never near the audience, as if we weren’t there. With stylized Tibetan minimalist movements, they dropped fully to their knees, one arm raised again, as they gazed off to a distant horizon. Rising, their arms rapidly sliced the air before them as they scudded backwards like beings returning to their birth, erasing their futures as if they were only dreams or echoes.

In 2015, when I first wrote about “Home/S. 9th St,” I wasn’t tuned into the nuances of displacement that immigration causes. Lin costumed the dancers in white and provided white folding chairs as props. They looked flimsy, and annoyed me. Now, watching Weiwei Ma wind her body through one in a solo excerpted of the original work, I found new meaning in the wobbly chair which could have folded causing her injury. But Ma slinked through and under it with the care and determination of someone facing unknown dangers. The chair, however fragile, carried her to a safe new place. Cory Neale’s electronic soundscape brought me deeper into the piece with a metallic, unrelenting propulsion that suggested harsh winds and waves. The chairs, I now see, become windows, stairways, beds, all the ordinary things we find at home.

A section of “Spring 101” followed and was just that. A sprightly lark with the KYL/D Ensemble in a riot of flower colored tights and leotards that gave us a little hope that surely spring would soon arrive.

Before the blazing finale, came the most riveting solo, by the master of inner calm and deep concentration, Lin himself. Dancing “17 Moves in Memory of Gus,” Lin held us spellbound as he interpreted ordinary, unrelated actions the late Gus Solomons gave to him and Pallabi Chakravorty during Covid when social distancing was a must. Chakravorty gave it her interpretation opening night, but I saw Lin on closing night. 

Within a squared off spotlight he wore a white collared shirt over khaki pants. The program listed Solomon’s tasks but I don’t think Lin performed them in order. He did “slice a diagonal path with his right hand” and “spiral around himself.” He “changed focus 10 times fast” and “turned left, right 10 times making a different gesture at each turn.” He managed to make each quotidian task look enormously important while simultaneously imbuing them with his signature casually spiritual style. The final gesture was letting go.

“Fire Ritual Dance/Feng Huang” had Joe Small “Calling in the Ritual” with thunderous Taiko drumming. A symbol of virtue and grace as well as the union of yin and yang, Feng Huang, like the Phoenix, is a symbol of rebirth through flame, signifying the company’s ending as a kind of new beginning. The full ensemble in spectacular crimson costumes by Jill Peterson danced to original music by Dayn Ng with each dancer holding or wearing a two-foot-long red feather on their heads. The group sections made the stage look engulfed in flames. They pounded on hand paddles adding to the clangorous rhythms of the beats. In the head feathers, Ma and Maggie Zhao lock arms around each other’s waists in the third section of five, rotate as one.

The ensemble included some dancers I’ve known over the years, like Keila Peres-Vega, a velvety mover who’s also doubled as the company’s marketing associate. And Takashi Kanai, who is legally blind, saw Kun-Yang dance for the first time that weekend, realizing what a powerful artist he is. Kanai founded Dance Blind, accessible dance classes for the blind and visually impaired and is just one of KYL/Ds marvelous artists who will go on to serve the Philadelphia metropolitan area for years to come. Some new members I hadn’t seen since I last reviewed the company in 2023 were Kendall Niblett, Justin Viernes, Angelica Nieves-Merced, Abby Donnenfeld and Karen Kao.