PORT ANGELES — The dancers fly around the planet, alighting in the Canary Islands of Spain, in their home country of Taiwan, and soon on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Hung Dance ensemble will bring its contemporary piece, “Birdy,” to Field Arts & Events Hall on Wednesday. It’s a story about something we all experience, said dancer Cheng I-Han: “Birdy” dives into how we face difficulty, get free and fly.
“We’ve performed around 100 shows,” the dancer said. “The audience is always sharing that they feel so many emotions, beyond words.”
Together, the ensemble of eight turns the stage into a scene pairing earth and sky. Their bodies flutter and glide; the struggle gives way to grace.
Hung is a Chinese word meaning to soar, and this company does that by blending contemporary dance, Peking Opera and tai chi, Cheng said.
Now a graduate of Taipei National University of the Arts, she’s been studying dance forms since she was 4, living in the port city of Keelung, Taiwan.
Hung Dance will present “Birdy” at 7:30 p.m. at Field Hall, 201 W. Front St., following a pre-show discussion at 6:15 p.m. with artistic director Lai Hung-Chung and Field Hall’s Jessie Young. Tickets to the performance start at $25 at fieldhallevents.org and at the box office, while financial assistance is available.
The pre-show talk is free to the public with no RSVP necessary.
“When I first encountered Lai Hung-Chung’s work, it was breathtaking,” said Field Hall artistic director Steve Raider-Ginsburg. “It was like nothing I had encountered before.”
“Hung Dance has catapulted to the biggest stages and festivals around the globe,” he added, “and the fact that they are performing ‘Birdy’ on our stage, in Port Angeles, I’m absolutely giddy about it.”
Begun in 2017, Hung Dance has traveled from continent to continent, introducing people to its mix of story and rhythm, punctuated with 4-foot-long pheasant feathers. The ensemble performed at the inaugural gala for Spain’s MASDANZA (More Dance) festival shortly before dancers Cheng and Huang Li-Chieh gave a Zoom interview about their forthcoming show in Port Angeles.
When asked how the airplane travel agrees with her — or not — Cheng said she loves it.
“That’s what ‘Birdy’ is doing,” after all, quipped the dancer, who also is the ensemble’s rehearsal director.
Huang, who began dancing when he was 8, is likewise an alumnus of Taipei National University of the Arts’ School of Dance, and has studied other disciplines, including the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira. That form, focused on relationships, translates in a sense to his current work.
“In ‘Birdy,’ I especially enjoy the connection with my fellow dancers,” Huang said. “Whether it’s a duet or a group scene, I really trust my partners, and at the same time, I feel the trust in myself.”
“There’s a mutual support and shared energy,” he added. “I feel the power of it. These relationships make me feel joy.”
When Huang was a young boy, his mother gave him a couple of options: Do you want to learn taekwondo or dance? He instinctively went with the latter, and he said he’s never looked back.
Since he joined Hung Dance, “I am so lucky,” he said.
To those who haven’t experienced much contemporary dance — and who might wonder if they will be able to pick up the story line — Huang said not to overthink it.
“We all try to understand things. But dance is something we should feel. ‘Birdy’ can be felt in many ways,” through its theme, its movement, its rhythms and the beautiful dancers on stage, Huang said.
“Just relax,” he said, “and enjoy.”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
