Huang Yi and Kuka

This was amazing ! Here's my thoughst , again for The Guide http://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/huang-yi-and-kuka-at-seymour-centre/ Can a robot actually dance ? In this case, yes. Huang Yi from Taiwan always wanted a robot companion as a child. Now he has one. This work was first performed in 2013 and has travelled internationally. It was inspired by childhood pressures. Huang’s family was in dire financial straits, his parents were greatly distressed and he felt the need to become emotionally detached and to appear to be ‘perfect’. The answer, Huang discovered, was robots. In this work contemporary dance and visual arts have become intermeshed with robotics. Listed by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to Watch,” is widely considered one of Asia’s major choreographers. Huang was immersed in the arts at a young age, spending much of his childhood in his parents’ studio watching them teach tango and learning to paint alongside his father. Huang’s work has been highly praised internationally , and featured in among others the Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), Tasdance and Dancenorth (Australia), Joyce Theater, Engien-Les-Bain Centre des Arts (France), Cloud Gate 2 (Taipei), the Indonesian Dance Festival (Jakarta), New York Live Arts, and the American Dance Festival (North Carolina). Huang’s collaboration with Cloud Gate 2 toured internationally in 2012, to much acclaim. He has received awards for his work at Digital Arts Center Taipei and the 3rd Cross Connection Ballet International Choreography Competition in Copenhagen, among many others across Europe and Asia. The German-manufactured robot ,which takes Huang 10 hours to programme to produce one minute of movement, is somehow lyrical and poetic in its movements and interaction .Kuka the machine, mostly used for making cars, has a mind of its own. At times it is like a dragon, hissing and spitting. At other times, it is a large predatory bird, or a nervous highly strung horse. In some sections it performs on its own, at other times it mirrors Huangs actions, or interacts, for example pushing a chair, or acts as support in a pas de deux. Large and orange it has both a red and green laser light. Huang has created a mesmerizing at times lyrical and haunting piece. It mainly uses the music of Mozart and Bach. The lighting is starkly dramatic at times quite dark .Sometimes there is just a small square or corridor of light concentrating on one of the performers. Huang wears an elegant dark suit with socks but no shoes. One section uses repetition. Huang performs an intricate quite princely ballet like solo with wonderful rondes des jambes and extremely expressive twinkling, almost talking, hands. This is then repeated in silence, but with Kuka mirroring the moves hidden in the dark so all we hear are the hisses and squeaks of that machine. The solo is then repeated again, with the music, but this time Kuka is also visible. The final section has two dancers Hu Chien and Lin Jou-Wen who perform a sort of slow-mo robotic pas de deux. Kuka uses a red laser light to manipulate, control and separate them. They swap places and eventually embrace. Is this a reunion of parted lovers (a la Brief Encounter) ? Is it Yi and Kuka, transformed into a human, in a parallel universe? Are they memories of his parents? A multi layered very intriguing work that captivates. Some audience members will establish a linear narrative, some not .Go see. Running time – just on an hour(approx) no interval. Huang Yi and Kuka runs at the Seymour Centre 16-19 March 2016