Electro Kif: Electrifying!/ Public demand for Harana/ Invitation to a homage

Paradoxically and ironically, a woman, Blanca Li, has choreographed ‘Electro Kif,’ a program of overwhelmingly virile, vigorous dances that combine street, modern, and break dancing, hip-hop, popping, a bit of acrobatics and all conceivably possible rhythmic movements of head, hands, shoulders, waist, hip and legs.

Eight men from Paris, attired in everyday clothes, executed the above in the most invigorating, electrifying fashion, their arms elastic, their bodies seemingly boneless.

The program opened in a purported classroom where the students listen to the professor’s lecture while learning nothing except to dance, i.e., gyrate, twist, rotate or shake their heads from side to side, slide, jump, etc. to percussive beats and a shrieking voice.

The eight then mimed a basketball game after which a solo dance ensued, followed by another solo, the scene ending with all dancers engaging in propulsive, unified, very cohesive action.

An agitated video game preceded a restaurant scene wherein the eight customers ate and burped together, later wreaking havoc on plates, tables and chairs that would imaginably cause the restaurant owner to froth in the mouth.

An intriguing experiment had a soloist performing to exquisitely lyrical classic music. Although the movements were far from classical, the soloist’s grace and fluidity, though angular, gave a new aspect to modern dance.

The concert, slightly over an hour — there was no intermission — gave the audience a vital, palpable experience in electro dance wherein cohesion and discipline underlined the “chaotic” and robust show which significantly exhibited the individual as well as the collective skill of the dancers.

Li’s choreography was a theatrical treatment of intermittent episodes such as the classroom, basketball and restaurant scenes which were enriched by the rib-tickling, amusing touches of humor conveyed by the talented dancers who performed to Tao Gutierrez’s special soundtrack of electro house, Afro beat and classical music.

Li integrates various dance styles to her own new, fresh, riveting style. Yet she claims her electro dance — interpreted by eight fantastic, terrific dancers — is still, evolving. We can hardly wait to see the next “Electro Kif”!

Already, the non-stop act was dreadfully exhausting, with sweat glistening on the dancers’ backs, their muscles strained to the limit.

Their reward was lusty clamor and prolonged applause. In grateful response each dancer gave mind-blowing feats. It took time for viewers to get up from their seats, obviously wanting to see more.

‘Electro Kif’ was presented by the CCP jointly with the Alliance Francaise and the French Embassy.

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Amidst foreign acts and musicals, another ‘Bagong Harana’ will be presented June 6-10 at the RCBC Theater by the Philippine Opera Co. headed by Karla Gutierrez who says ‘Ang Bagong Harana’ is a love song to our country.

Audiences have re-discovered the wealth that modern Filipinos can mine from our traditional and contemporary music, leading to knowing who we are and what we have that we can call Pinoy. People may say we are the best in the world. In our first ‘Harana’ we wanted to prove this by using our own old and present-day material, Karla continues.

The Company consists of actors and singers: Karla, Aizel Prietos, Charley Magalit, Janine Santos, Marian Santiago, Lawrence Jaytana, Jack Salud, Nazer Salgado, Marvin Gayramon and Al Gatmaitan. Although most have performed in plays and musicals, not one is “mainstream.”

Director Floy Quintos begins the show with traditional children’s songs, moving to a kundiman suite framed against the backdrop of revolution, a tribal suite based on the indigenous respect for the environment, a suite of folk songs with a fiesta background, and a tribute to Sylvia la Torre that harks back to our bodabil days. The concert ends with present-day OPM classics like Freddie Aguilar’s “Anak” which is a sharp social commentary.

Last year’s ‘Ang Bagong Harana’ was so warmly received that there will be a re-run June 6-9 at 8 p.m. with matinees at 3:30 p.m. on June 9 and 10.

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Yesterday, I received an invitation worded thus: Time, rhyme, ring, dazzlement/Homage to the Penguin/Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco/With the Electric Underground Collective/June 01, 2012, Friday, 6:30 p.m./For the grand inaugural of the Glass House at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf/1771 Adriatico.