Dance fest turns up heat on racism
By her own description, choreographer Philein Wang is used to making “diplomatic” art. In fact, in 2013 her ZiRu Dance company won a $ 50,000 grant from the U. S. State Department and the U. S. Embassy in Beijing for the purpose of diplomacy, funding the first of 10 tours to China over five years. The dances Wang took there were familyfriendly and emphasized human beauty and crossculturalism, though they did not explicitly address racism.
But the events of this year have changed her.
First came COVID19, then she learned of antiAsian harassment directed at close friends, then the police killing of George
Floyd. It gave
Wang a renewed sense that her efforts in the dance world should speak up.
“The turning point for me was when the embassies closed,”
Wang, the daughter of a Taiwanese immigrant father and Chinese immigrant mother, told The Chronicle on a recent morning from her Redwood City home. “I’d had such positive experiences behind closed doors bridging all three countries: China, the U. S. and Taiwan. I reached out that week to the State Department.”
And so she found herself working diplomatically again, but this time with a clearer message. ZiRu Dance’s “Renewal,” the twophase Silicon Valley Dance Festival 2020, is scheduled to livestream its first offerings on SaturdaySunday, Dec. 1920, and aims to
promote “positive growth, healing and equity while helping to dispel xenophobia.”
At the center are two new dances by Wang, including a solo, “Be Still: These Echoes of Longing,” based on interviews with members of the South Bay Asian American community about their experiences with racism.
“Many Asian Americans in recent years have had their exit plans” because they feared government actions, she said, adding, “it wasn’t so long ago in this country that there were internment camps.”
The festival is much larger than her work.
Wang, who danced for top Bay Area choreographers like Janice Garrett and for Taiwan’s venerated Cloud Gate Dance Theater, has assembled a truly internationallevel lineup for the festival’s opening night, which will be available for viewing on demand until Jan. 3. The mainstage program includes dances by BeijingDance/ LDTX, New York’s Sidra Bell Dance, Oakland’s Axis Dance Company, and two highprofile San Francisco companies, ODC/ Dance and Robert Moses’ Kin.
For Robert Moses, a former dance faculty member at Stanford University, agreeing to participate in the virtual dance festival was simple.
“I’ve known Philein for years, and her energy and dedication to the field have always been apparent,” he said. “The festival is a great opportunity to make sure that RMK’s commitment to the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and the national dance scene come together in one event. We have to take every opportunity to stay active and involved in this new environment, and Silicon Dance Festival is a great way for RMK to do that.”
It’s also an opportunity to scout talent, with its second program offering world premieres by emerging choreographers such as Project Bandaloop’s Melecio Estrella and Tassiana Willis, and former San Francisco Ballet principal ( and now ODC/ Dance member) Jaime Garcia Castilla. The works vary tremendously in style, and many are personal.
Take Vincent Chavez, a former Oakland Ballet dancer who began working with Wang straight out of the Lines Ballet Training Program, who created a dance about his 83yearold grandmother in Albuquerque, “A Letter from Mi Abuela.”
“I haven’t been able to visit her during the pandemic, so we communicate through long letters,” he said.
The solo, danced by Fabiana Santiago, was rehearsed outside, wearing masks.
Chavez also works with Wang on ZiRu’s Project Dance O. F. F., through which Bay Area dance stars give free movement classes to people experiencing stress and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. Through that project, Chavez has taught online dance to teen mothers through an organization called Teen Success, while other Dance O. F. F. teachers have been giving free dance classes through the Chinese Health Care Initiative and One Life Counseling of San Carlos.
The Silicon Valley Dance Festival will continue with a program in March that Wang hopes to tour to China in 2021, COVID19 conditions permitting.