News
Wen Wei Wang's ‘Night Box’ inspired by urban nightlife
April 18, 2012
Written by Shaun Brady
Metro PhiladelphiaLes Ballets Jazz de Montreal will be celebrating its 40th anniversary
later this year, but isn't quite ready to light the candles just yet.
Which means that Philly, where the pioneering dance company will offer
the world premiere of a new piece by choreographer Wen Wei Wang, gets to
crash the party a little early.
Chinese-born but based in Canada, Wang met LBJM director Louis
Robitaille while both were dancing for Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. His
new piece, "Night Box," was conceived during a weeklong workshop with
the company last year. "He transposed action from the nightlife of a big
city," Robitaille says of the piece. "When you're in a city and look
around, many things happen: Somebody's on the phone, somebody's talking
with friends, somebody is reading, another one is waiting for the
bus.?So this piece is all about isolating those actions inside a crowd."
The new piece shares the bill with the Philadelphia premiere of Aszure
Barton's "Les Chambres des Jacques," for which Robitaille recalls the
choreographer working closely with LBJM's dancers, isolating individual
habits from each.
Robitaille feels that together, the two pieces "represent quite well the
personality of the company, which is very energetic, very physical and
very dynamic."
If you go
Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal
Tonight through
Saturday
Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
3680 Walnut St.
$20-$60, 215-898-3900
www.annenbergcenter.orgMetro Philadelphiahttp://www.metro.us/philadelphia/entertainment/article/1140758--wen-wei-wang-s-night-box-inspired-by-urban-nightlife
