HUMAN CRISIS THROUGH ART
Fresh relevance for dance show
The hip-hop scene was pretty poor in Perpignan. That didn’t stop 13-year-old Sebastien Ramirez from pursuing every avenue available to him to build his breakdance repertoire.
Growing up in the ancient French city on the border of Spain, Ramirez and his friends relied on shared resources of a pre-Internet world.
“It was underground, very limited, no ’net yet, and those of us that were into this new music and dance were learning by studying copies of videos coming from the United States,” said Ramirez.
“It wasn’t the global scene it is today, so establishing yourself as a B-boy in Europe was not easy.”
But establish himself he did. After years of vigorous training, he started to compete in the European B -boy competitions and won numerous championships.
Ramirez admits that he found himself through the music and movement.
“It is a culture that covers many classes and social groups, fully inclusive and open — and where I found my place, my area to get respect from others,” he said.
Meanwhile, Honji Wang, of Korean descent and raised in Germany, was taking ballet. She eventually stopped dancing around age 16, only to find the fire reignited in Berlin’s hip-hop underground. Freed from the constraints of classical movement arts, Wang also embraced the culture of hard practice and harder play. She too had found herself.
Wang and Ramirez met in Berlin and both took to each other’s physical esthetic and creative drive. They fell in love, artistically and in life.
In 2007, they formed Company Wang Ramirez. The contemporary dance company blends hip hop with modern dance, ballet, martial arts, and such traditions as flamenco. The combination of Ramirez’s self-taught techniques and Wang’s more classically trained transition into hip hop has won the duo awards, including a 2013 New York Bessie Award for AP15, and has seen their pieces performed at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Barcelona’s Mercat de les Flors.
Reviews lavish praise upon Company Wang Ramirez’s wideranging movement vocabulary and fondness for developing new senses of space using choreographic rigging, collaborating with contemporary composers and other leading dancers.
“Our instant connection meant that we had an immediate rapport to explore and expand our choreography,” said Ramirez of his collaborations with Wang.
“This has meant we have done work with everyone from flamenco dancers to setting a piece to AngloEnglish composer Nitin Sawhney’s album Dystopian Dream. Because we are made up of mixed people with a strong urban culture background, a lot of the work is about contemporary issues.”
That is the case with Borderline. The 2013 work is a socio-political creation for six dancers with a strong hip-hop base and some rigging
to address the ongoing issues of refugees, national identity and other movements across Europe.
One of the ways that the show achieves this is by playing around with the weight and resistance between the dancers, and with each individual.
The rigger works both with and against the performers as something of a unpredictable force in their midst. This manages to bring in social commentary subtly but with impact as issues of individuals’ journeys in these interesting times.
“Borderline was very relevant five years ago when it came out in Europe,” said Ramirez.
“But I can see how it is perhaps even more relevant now as these issues are happening in North America as well. Just look at the children being taken from their parents along the American border. The news looks familiar again.”
Represented by a non-profit cooperative called Clash66 and dedicated to keeping the inclusivity of the hip-hop scene in their troupe, Company Wang Ramirez is composed of dancers from across the globe, drawn from many different social and cultural backgrounds, including a number of improvised dancers adding yet another element to the creations.
“We started as a duo, but now we are many more,” he said.
“It depends on what the show needs naturally, but we are always looking for new ways to explore dance. Being able to do what you love with who you love is a pretty incredible situation.”
Company Wang Ramirez is presented in Vancouver by DanceHouse and opens an exciting season of dance.
Next up is a performance by the U.K.’s acclaimed Akram Khan Company (Nov. 21-24), who perform in a duo with Wang, titled The Pursuit of Now, accompanied by pianist Shahin Novrasli. Ramirez also worked on the creation of Khan’s solo DESH.
Australia’s Ilbijerri Theatre Company presents Blood on the Dance Floor (Feb. 6-9) and Vancouver’s Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young present the world premiere of a new Kidd Pivot piece Revisor (Feb. 20-23).
The season continues with Compagnie Marie Chouinard from Montreal (March 15-16) and the American company Momix (April 12-13).
Full ticket and show information is available at dancehouse.ca