And since they’ve been raised separately, they don’t know they’re brother and sister. In Act II, it is 18 years later, and Little Dragon (Ji Tuo) and Little Phoenix (again Jasmine Chiu) meet on their 18th birthday in the same club where their parents met, although they don’t know this. And then there’s an intermission, which brings the audience back to life. But then Lone and the power of the Dragon Spring lift the dead Little Lotus and her baby 80 feet into the air, and bring them back to life. The evil ones kill Little Lotus and her daughter Little Phoenix, and carry off Lotus’ son Little Dragon. They marry and have twins, Little Dragon and Little Phoenix. Lee has persuaded a billionaire wellness entrepreneur named Doug Pince (David Torok) to seduce Lotus. Dragon Spring apparently holds the key to longevity. If you prefer some details: In the first act, Grandmaster Lone Peak (David Patrick Kelly, a Broadway veteran) and his scrappy daughter Little Lotus (Jasmine Chiu) are betrayed by Lone’s right-hand man Lee (Dickson Mbi), who wants to take over the Dragon Spring, which Lone and his ancestors have protected for generations, through a secret sect called the guardians of the House of Dragons, with branches all over the world, including Flushing, Queens, where the play takes place. All you really need to know: It’s a fight between good and evil, over two generations, and (spoiler alert) good triumphs. It’s best to think of the show as dance theater, and forget about the story, which doesn’t make much sense even if you can actually follow what’s going on. In that spirit, allow me to acknowledge that, yes, “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise” is too long, too confusing, in places tedious, in other places overwrought and even creepy its silvery and spandex costumes look like a mix of 1950s sci-fi movie and 1970s disco its songs are paltry and its underscoring persistently annoying – New Age ambient pounding that cries out “We don’t trust that you’ll find what’s going on dramatic.” HOWEVER, amid the awfulness there are a scattering of impressive moments - of visual splendor, awesome stagecraft, and exciting dance and martial arts choreography… enough of them to make me glad that I can say I saw this first theatrical spectacle in The Shed’s inaugural season.īackground: PeiJu Chien-Pott (Little Lotus), left: Ji Tuo (Little Dragon), right: Jasmine Chiu (Little Phoenix). I quote Poots in my article for TDF Stages about “Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise,” which Poots is calling a kung fu musical. The piece featured in MOVE, a dance doc-series by Falabracks on Netflix.Theater lovers should expect “a spirit of adventure and invention” from the shows at The Shed, according to Alex Poots, the artistic director of this new $500 million arts center on West 30 thStreet. She worked as Dance Captain with choreographer Akram Khan, and assistant choreographer, Joy Alpuerto Ritter to manipulate movement while coordinating with Martial Arts choreographer Zhang Jun, and Aerial Director Lisa Giobbi.īefore Covid-19 lockdown she spent 5 weeks in Dhaka, Bangladesh with Akram Khan Company training 25 local dancers and ultimately performing Father: Vision of the Floating World. She was a Company Dancer with Entity Contemporary Dance, co-founded by Will Johnston and Marissa Osato Moreno, for 3 seasons before joining ODC Dance Company in San Francisco. After 2 seasons she felt the urge to discover more versatility and joined the cast of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise, a multimedia production designed for The Shed NYC, by award winning director Chen Shi-Zheng. She was in the original cast of Pearl, directed and choreographed by Daniel Ezralow, which premiered at Lincoln Center’s David H. Growing up in San Diego where she honed her technical skills in Dance while training and competing nationally in Judo, Lani Yamanaka graduated from UC Irvine with BFAs in Dance Performance and Choreography and had the honor of working closely with the late Donald McKayle, whom she continues to draw inspiration from.
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