Asia Dance Channel

Dance is a pervasive theme that expresses movement, passion, sensuality and tension. In traditional ballet, the style is very classical while in contemporary ballet, it has more of a modern feel.

Dance Waves 2008, presented by Ellie Zhou Ballet Studio on 23 August 2008, served a combination of classical ballet, contemporary ballet and some cultural dances from China, Korea and Spain. There were 16 themes of dance in the show presented by the students of Ellie Zhou Ballet Studio. They comprise of Zhou Gui Xin (Artistic Director of the show), their principal dancers, guest dancers from National Arts Culture and Heritage Academy (ASWARA) and senior citizens.

The opening dance was presented by Isabelle Brouwers, a 12-year-old girl who only started learning ballet when she was seven. Brouwers is going to the Royal Ballet School in England in September to pursue her dream of becoming a ballerina. She presented three solos in classical ballet style. She impressed everyone by going sur la pointe when everyone else at her level could not. She managed quite well several chaînés tournes, double pirouettes, arabesque, double pique turns and grand jeté. For her age, Brouwers exhibited good technique and flexibility. Her turns in attitudes were equally lovely. Although some of her movements were not very smooth, you can tell that she gave it her best. I would say that she was more focused on her footwork than the flow of the dance.

Pastoral, choreographed by Zhou, was a neoclassical ballet infused with Mongolian dance. Elynn Chew presented this solo piece that had extreme tempos and complicated footwork. She performed an impressive six continuous chaînés spotting her destination.

Watching Sense of You, which was choreographed and performed by Alyzsa Lim, was very touching because she used her body and facial expression to communicate her own life experience. Her dance was a meeting place between classical ballet technique and contemporary dance sensibilities. Ballet is not only about the technique, but one needs to dance from the heart. Alyzsa was successful in presenting the soul of this dance, which was the heartbreak of a girl in a case of unrequited love. Alyzsa worked with different pace in her piece and coordinated her expression of emotions to the flow of the music. The outpouring of emotions certainly took a toll on the dancer but it was all worth it because she managed to touch the audience.

Dance Waves 2008 was not only presented by the young but members of the senior citizen also sportingly took to stage. It is an excellent effort of promoting dance to the elderly. Of the 16 items, five were presented by them. They include Mazurka, Flower Drum, Half Moon, Carmen and Polka. The objective of the performances was certainly not to show off skills but, rather, efforts. It is difficult for the performers, those aged up to 70 years old to memorise all the steps, make formations, follow the beat, and exhibit good posture. Props such as fans were used in Flower Drum and Half Moon. The old folks controlled the fans very well. Fan techniques require a lot of wrist work; hence it was credible that they managed it quite well. In fact, the senior dancers enjoyed resounding applause from the audience.

According to Ellie Lai, Principal of Ellie Zhou Ballet Studio, “My elderly students found it difficult to memorise the steps and the different dance styles when they first joined. But after several classes, they found that their stamina improved and memorising the steps helped to keep their minds active.

Besides the school’s dancers, there were six guest dancers from ASWARA, who performed Tibetan Folk Dance and Time. The Tibetan Folk Dance was a dance with a lot of turns and hand movements. As the dancers turn and threw their hands in the air, the costumes with extra long sleeve flew gracefully like ribbons floating in mid-air. The concept of this dance was to create cheer. A formation of the number ‘eight’ depicts prosperity and happiness. The dancers need a lot of stamina and endurance to perform this dance as they are constantly running, jumping and turning. The dancers were truly professional, as no matter how tired they were, there was always a smile on their faces.

Time, a contemporary ballet piece, which illustrated the story of love in eternity, was another impressive performance by the ASWARA dancers. The danseur, (a rare thing in Malaysia), showcased stunning duets with his partner. In Time, the choreographer is able to explore lifting and partnering techniques. Mohd Zaim’s effortless lifts created an illusion of (the ballerina’s) incredible lightness and the ability to ‘fly.’

Yellow River was a dance on the hopes and dreams of mother land. The turns and rigorous movements were designed to show the swirling power and rapid waters of the great river. The excessively fast movements actually made the dance look quite messy because not all the dancers could keep up and the audience did not know which dancer to focus on. However, this piece was still appealing because it had a variety of formations that created visually beautiful patterns.

Compared to Yellow River, Korean Dance focused more on hand movements and less on the footwork. In this piece, Hii Ing Fung amazed the audience by completing full turns on her knees.

Zhou Gui Xin presented his signature dance called Eagle. His arms and hand movements were amazing as it imitated almost perfectly the wings of an eagle in flight. While his body language is that of a flying eagle, his eye contact and facial expression demonstrates that this eagle is out hunting.

Swan Lake is one of the most famous ballet repertoires. Dance Waves 2008 used this as its concluding performance. Zhou had modified the dance to include more technique than storytelling. The dancers did tours chaînés déboulés, grand jeté, grand battlement, batterie, attitude en pointe and more in different combinations and extensions. Elynn Chew, as Odette, executed the bourre with lovely hand movements and arabesque penchée with turns just at the right angle. Foo Siau Yin as the Black Swan, did an elegent arabesque en pointe after several hops on one foot en demi-pointe. The audience was wowed by Zhou’s pirouettes en dehors with 16 rotations. Zhou as Prince Siegfried, supported and lifted Elynn Chew and Foo Siau Yin in various postures in the Odette pas de deux and Black Swan pas de deux.

Unfortunately, Danse des petits cygnes, which is the “dance of little swans”, was not presented. At least Zhou managed to arrange solos for senior ballerinas in which, they confidently demonstrated advance and challenging ballet techniques. Finally, the coda générale was presented by Elynn Chew with arabesque à la hauteur supported by Zhou. When all of the dancers performed the Reverence, the audiences cheered with delight.

It was a successful performance that Saturday night. The performance tells us something about dancing; and that is, with passion, anyone can dance.

Dance Wave 2008
23 August 2008
Securities Commission Auditorium, Bukit Kiara
By Amezakamilla Abu Seman

Elli-Zhou Ballet Studio (EZBS) presented Dance Wave 2008 on the 23^rd August 2008 at the Securities Commission Auditorium, Bukit Kiara. Sixteen dance numbers were presented that night with a special performance by Mr. Zhou himself with his signature master piece entitled Eagle. The EZBS had invited students of Mr. Zhou from the National Arts Culture and Heritage Academy (ASWARA) to perform two dances which were Tibetan Folk Dance and Time. All performances were choreographed by Mr Zhou Guixin except for a solo performance by EZBS graduate student, Alyzsa Lim.

What’s unique about Dance Wave was that some of the dances were performed by women ages above 40 years old. Can you imagine your 40-year-old mother or your 65-year-old grandmother dancing on stage? Imagine no more as all these ladies who perform that night amazed us with their grace, energy and stamina. Though, some of the elder dancers were lacking in terms of coordination, the choreography itself was not bad. It was basic and suited the dancers. According to Madam Ellie Zhou, she was impressed that all the elderly dancers were able to memorize all the choreographed movements. I was equally impressed because they performed five dances that night, which included Chinese cultural dances and a Spanish dance. These dance exercises has been very helpful in keeping these women young at heart while maintaining their health. Madam Ellie Zhou told us that they have stop complaining about getting easily tired. So, if you want to stop listening to the same complain by your mother and grandmother, send them to a dance class for dance exercise.

Other than the performance by the elderly, a very young lady stole the show that night. This young lady is Isabelle Brouwers, and she is just 12! She opened the show with a dance act entitled Esmeralda. With the mature performance that she put on who would have known that she only started ballet at the age of seven? She danced almost like a professional. For your information, she will be leaving to England to attend the prestigious Royal Ballet School in September 2008. Way to go Isabelle!

The other graduate dancers of EZBS were just fair dancers. There is still room for improvements, and with more practice and guidance, they too can excel as professional ballerinas. So far, Mr. Zhou Guixin did a fair job in making the performances a success. The audience was happy and that was what matters most.