Formerly known as IntoxicASIAN (and Diwali the year before that), Fusion: The Pan-Asian Experience, is a night full of Asian culture, dance and overall experience organized by CCASA (Connecticut College Asian/Asian American Student Association). Since I am far from an expert on Asian culture, I can’t say I really expected anything specific when I went to see the event this past Friday.
Every year, the event raises money for charities in Asia. This year’s show started with a slideshow featuring photos of broken-down classrooms in Vietnam, which will be fixed by Conn students January of 2010. While it is a noble cause, starting the show off this way was kind of a downer for me.
I know that sounds horrible, and I know many places in the world need resources for rebuilding different public buildings and infrastructure, but maybe it was because I entered Cro that night just expecting a dance performance.
Finally the performances started.
“Jai-Ho,” the first song (from Slumdog Millionaire), didn’t impress me. The choreography was entertaining and everyone looked like they were having fun onstage. They weren’t as synchronized as they probably should’ve been, though.
The dancers also were wearing scarves and I hoped that the choreographers would integrate that accessory into the dance somehow but it was just for aesthetic appeal, which disappointed me a little. While that possibly would’ve made the dance a little complicated to teach, it would’ve been more interesting as a result.
The Vietnamese Fan Dance was very well performed. Each dancer was very careful to keep the fans shaking at all times. The only “fan dance” I had ever seen, before last night, was from an episode of Gilmore Girls when Rory attends her débutante ball, so I was quite impressed with Fusion’s version.
The dancers were almost 100 percent synchronized, which surprised me. The fan props could’ve been disastrous. The part when the dancers were going around in a circle, elevating the fans as they went around, is just like the dancers going around Chicago’s Billy Flynn in “All I Care About,” giving the piece a theatrical flair.
One of my favorite dances could have been the Chinese Water-sleeve Dance. There was such beautiful choreography in there. It wasn’t completely synchronized, which killed it for me.
Granted, the dancers had to remember their safety because of the extremely long sleeves on the costumes. Apart from that, I loved it, especially Wayne Ong’s role in the storyline.
I wasn’t all that impressed with the Korean Dance. The dancing and choreography was pretty good, but nothing really compelled me to watch it.
While I give the ladies props for dancing in high-heeled shoes, there were a few girls who looked like they didn’t even want to be up on stage. That just doesn’t make for an entertaining experience. A performer needs to draw the audience in with their smiles and enthusiasm, or at least fake it.
Then came the belly dancing. A lot of the dancers had never done it before and belly dancing is pretty difficult, so kudos to them for getting the choreography together and well synchronized. I enjoyed Pete Konowski’s humorous addition to the piece; though, I think I would’ve loved it more if he had started dancing with them instead of just being mesmerized by them. That would probably go against the purpose of the dance, which is supposed to seduce a man (seemed to work pretty well on Pete).
I enjoyed the Beijing Opera as well as its introduction by Charles Cochran and Devon Butler, the MCs. The star of the piece, Aaron Chau, was dressed as a Chinese mime and mimed quite well. Offended that he’d been left out of the party, Aaron proceeded to mime-drink all the royal’s wine and drunk-walked, stumbling off stage temporarily while he stole the rest of their property.
When he came back, he was still captivating, doing cool martial arts tricks with a long silver pole. Spinning it at high speeds, he dropped the pole a few times, but it was still entertaining.
I adored the Chinese Yo-Yo piece. Jeremy Wong was jumping rope and catching it, wrapping it around his leg and spinning it, juggling two of them on the string simultaneously. The performance was phenomenal.
For the Martial Arts demonstration, I was enthralled. While Charles van Rees didn’t teach anyone how to complete the defensive maneuvers, I know one thing: if I’m ever in a fight, I’m tagging Charles in my place to kick my opponent’s ass. Poor Sam Field, as the uke taijitsu (empty-hand), getting thrown into the floor almost the whole time. Ouch.
The Lion Dance was cute and very entertaining. I think the look for the two guys as the lion would’ve been enhanced had they worn similar colored shirts, since the lion’s body showed their torsos under it some of the time. I definitely laughed when the lion kept fluttering his eyes at the audience.
The Supra Tofu Bros. V.2 was very well done. Dan Swezey and Wayne Ong were enjoying themselves, they were extremely synchronized and the audience enjoyed it thoroughly. Since they did a similar piece in Eclipse last spring, the dance came with little surprise value, but it was excellently performed.
Bollywood had good dancing. I thought the girl in the white shirt, presumably the one who choreographed it, should’ve worn one of the two colors her dancers were wearing so that she didn’t stand out as much. It was very similar to the belly-dancing piece but there were slight differences. Overall I enjoyed it.
Bhangra Fusion might’ve been my favorite dance. It was hilarious! I enjoyed the dance-off aspect of it. The perfromance was mostly synchronized, and everyone was having fun onstage. The audience loved it too. It had a great ending as well, where the guys jumped into each other’s arms.
As a performer, I know things can slip up, get messy, etc. and it’s the way the dancers deal with mistakes. No one can anticipate getting off by a half of a beat, or further off. All one can do is know the steps, practice together and hope it’s perfect on stage.
I admire the hard work everyone put into this show. In all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable event.
View the photo gallery.
Personally, I do not believe Kimmie Braunthal is a person of credibility or authority to critique this show. Does she have any performing experience? I haven’t seen her in any productions…
I agree with the last post. This article reads like live-blogging of the event rather than a thoughtful article on it. I’m abroad and would have loved to have heard some descriptions of some of the acts; it seems as if the only thing the author noticed was synchronization.
I’m not sure what the intention of the article as a whole is. An incredible amount of time and effort goes into this production every year, and there isn’t a single quote from a participant or organizer. And I’m really sorry that looking at pictures of decrepit Vietnam school was a bummer for her. Really, that’s tragic.
How about some information on the charities the proceeds from this event will go to support? How about a quotation from ANYONE, even an audience member? She clearly has little to no knowledge of the background of the pieces and as a result simply recommends different-colored costumes.
As a person who was part of the show, I can say there was A LOT of work that went into the dance. Wayne, the dancers, the CCASA executive board and general body put in hours a week putting this show together. The dancers not only practiced during rehearsals, but they practiced for hours in their rooms making sure that they got their moves down. The vietnamnese fan dance was not “FUSION’s version” of a fan dance! It’s a cultural dance performed in Vietnam!
I am assuming that you have never helped out at any major production like FUSION, because if you have, you would know how much work goes into it. If you are going say things like “there were a few girls who looked like they didn’t even want to be up on stage,” GET AN ACTUAL QUOTE. People were not forced to dance in any of the pieces, they volunteered and I can tell you they LOVED every moment of it.
Being a good critic does not mean just getting your opinions down on paper, it means getting quotes from people that participated in the event and the audience. The quotes give your work substance and different perspective. This piece has no substance.
[…] also submit a letter to the editor from across the Atlantic railing against a terrible article on FUSION that was published a short while […]
I know this is belated (and probably water under the bridge), but I wanted to comment in my defense of the article. I’m not writing here to say you’re all wrong in that it was poorly-written (of course I know that it was-it reads like a petty blog/diary). However, I do want to state a few things in response to comments here and ones I’ve heard elsewhere with regards this article. I’m not sure if this is the proper place or time to do so, but this is my option right now, so here goes…
First, I do have performance experience, a lot of it. I performed annually with the dance school in my town where I took lessons/classes for over 10 years. I went to a performing arts camp where I participated in musicals and dance performances. I performed with the dance team at my high school for 2 years and was captain one of those years. I’ve performed in choir since I was in 4th grade and have performed solo vocally since 10th grade. I’ve performed in plays/musicals since 1st grade.
Of course, unless you asked me you wouldn’t know any of this. You would only know (maybe) of my performances here at Conn, of which there have been many-Camelbacks (step dance ensemble), chamber choir (my 4th semester doing so), voice recitals, jazz band/ensemble, the vagina monologues (last year, not this year), dr. horrible’s sing-along blog, 7th & broadway: a musical review, Privilege, and (most recently and therefore not applicable when my article was printed) the Rocky Horror Show.
Second, the article as I’d written it was not supposed to print as far as what I inferred from an editor’s note to me. The note was long and gave me suggestions of what to do with my article. I inferred that meant it wasn’t printing the week after FUSION and was, instead, going to print the week after with my better, rewritten article.
Of course I could’ve done more research on the different represented cultures (my dance experiences, though quantitative, didn’t have the breadth spanning to Asia at all), gotten quotes from performers instead of hastily running out the door to write the article, and also learned what FUSION was all about. Had I known beforehand that it was a fundraiser for something beside just the CCASA club at school, I wouldn’t have been so shocked and, I suppose, annoyed with having to see images of the underdeveloped villages for a while before the dancing began. I honestly thought it was a purely dance performed show of a selection of Asian dances and therefore I could just comment on the performances, no real research necessary.
I know the kind of work performers and organizers put into a show. I don’t believe I said that they didn’t work hard-if it was inferred, I apologize for that. My focus on the performers and their synchronization was just a theme for me that night, I suppose. Of course there are many different aspects to each performance-this was just one that I noticed a lot. Perhaps it was due to nerves, perhaps due to having a bad day, that some performers looked like they weren’t having fun at certain points. I acknowledge my mistake in not personally asking why the performers that I noticed not smiling or energetic during a song weren’t doing so, especially considering that not every dance is meant to celebrate (again, something that I would’ve known had I done the proper research of the dances beforehand).
I made a big mistake by not researching/writing the article as thoroughly as I should have. I offended a lot of people who worked very hard to put the show together, which I would’ve had a more positive outlook on had I done what I needed to do and, therefore, would’ve enjoyed as much as the students involved did. I honestly thought I had the opportunity to rewrite it and that they weren’t going to print it. Not that it’s any legitimate excuse for not doing my part more thoroughly and not hitting each step of an article-writing process. However, I wanted to let everyone know that there was a definite miscommunication between me and my editor, which I didn’t realize (I guess that’s why they have the saying about “what happens when you assume…”).
Anyway, I’m sincerely sorry to those I offended by my article-process-incompletion. I hope after you’ve read this you’ll have gained some perspective on what happened on my end, instead of just assuming I’m a poor writer (I’ve written 2 other articles for the Voice if you want any public proof of my true writing ability, though that’s beside the point) and that I’m petty, judgmental and heartless toward a cause that I actually do have a lot of compassion and understanding for (in a different context, of course, than this article proves…and, again, beside the point).
“To err is human,” they say, “and to forgive, divine.” I’m hoping whoever reads this will accept my apology.