Dance troupe reshaping way you think of hip-hop
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wang Ramirez is known worldwide for bringing hip-hop to concert dance stages, but to call it only a hiphopact would be selling it short.
Thanks to its namesake creators, Honji Wang and Sebastien Ramirez, it’s actually an ever-evolving fusion of hip-hop, martial arts, ballet, aerial work and whatever else inspires this French-Hispanic-Koreanduo.
Local audiences will get a taste of Wang Ramirez’s mixed-movement vocabulary when it makes its Pittsburgh debut Wednesday at the Byham Theater, Downtown, as part of the Pittsburgh Dance Council’s 201718season.
The couple are on a world tour, with stops in Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Mich., France, Germany and Switzerland after its Pittsburgh engagement. When not on the road, they call Perpignan in the south of Francetheir home. Mr. Ramirez was born in France; Ms. Wang was born and raised in Germany by Korean parents.
They’re also in-demand collaborators who’ve worked with everyone fromMadonna to New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns. But that hasn’talways been the case.
“People were not interested in the verybeginning when they saw the label‘hip-hop,’” Ms. Wang says.
She recalls receiving a lukewarm welcome just a few years ago at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival from those who didn’t think a troupe rooted in hip-hop could have the artistic chops of a contemporary or ballet company. Personnel at New York City’s Brooklyn Academy of Music made similar assumptions until the dancers showed them that hip-hop is just one of many ingredients that goesinto a Wang Ramirez work.
“People who were not interested in it at all actually became quite enthusiastic,” she says. At Jacob’s Pillow, they told her, “This wasn’t what weexpected. We didn’t know hip-hop couldhave an emotional part.”
“When you see us, you have to be open-minded,”she explains.
In Pittsburgh, Wang Ramirez will present “Borderline,” described as “a weight game of constraint and freedom” in which performers are supported and restrained by cables. What the rigging system does (and doesnot) allow dancers to do is representative of feeling trapped or limitedby something or someone in life.
Ms. Wang calls it “an emotional