Beijing Dance LDTX performing an excerpt of The Cold Dagger. This excerpt was performed with full stage props four years ago in Purchase, New York. The performance was stiff visually striking and the movement was gorgeous. It was amazing to see this 7-year-old dance troop so perfectly absorb and build upon the lessons movement and sound of William Forsythe's Frankfurt Ballet of two decades past, which I had also seen the month after I moved to Los Angeles some 25 years ago. It was a moment of a lifetime to see this Chinese dance company perform with stellar grace.

Janet Durrans for The New York Times/Purchase New York, 2007

It is reported that modern dance was forbidden in China until 1980. The Beijing LDTX Dance company(Lei Dong Tian X, which translates as “thunder rumbling under heaven”) was one of the first dance companies in China to be offered artistic freedom and autonomy. With this freedom they have soared to the heavens of the top of the international dance circuit.

The Cold Dagger is an exploration of life as a chess game.

one Table N Chairs, is derived from different regions in China

All River Red considers the tensions in the development of contemporary dance in China against its 5,000 year history.

“Beijing Dance/LDTX doesn’t rely heavily on traditional Chinese dance. It does reflect international contemporary dance styles, as well as martial arts.” Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times, October 23, 2007

What is so remarkable about Beijing Dance LDTX is that they have achieved in only seven years what no dance company in California has been able to do. Beijing Dance LDTX has in short order become a world-class experimental dance theater company with a global audience, sold out performances worldwide, astounding costumes, and are a must see dance experience, with its own dance festival despite the incredible wealth and artistic freedom in California. That this company was not showcased at LA’s main dance stage, the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, and that there was no advance television publicity for this dance company’s arrival in LA is most unfortunate. As it turns out, many everyday folk were the evening’s audience at The Luckman Theater at Cal State LA on the one night this dance company debuted in Los Angeles with its utterly breathtaking, visually arresting dance works. Lots of young women came together in groups to see this company. This is a company that I intend to follow from now on.  Hopefully they will return with full stage props over an extended engagement. People in LA like myself who would not miss a Wooster Group performance at Redcat Disney should keep their eyes opens for when this company returns to Southern California.

Beijing Dance LDTX performing All Red River

Beijing Dance LDTX

Beijing Dance LDTX performing One Table N Chairs (photo by Zhang He Ping).

Vincent Johnson in Los Angeles

He has work at Soho House in West Hollywood, in the ForYourArt Benefit Edition exhibition through June, 2011. In May he will have a photo triptych on display at Pallihouse in West Hollywood, as part of a benefit exhibition for Los Angeles Nomadic Division (L.A.N.D.)

LANYArtiststudio@gmail.com

Biography April 2011