PORT TOWNSEND — “The Message,” this year’s performance by the dancers of the Ling Hui Studio, moves all over the musical map: from Fatboy Slim to Philip Glass and from Claude Debussy to John Legend.
Admirers of dance have three Ling Hui shows from which to choose: at 7 p.m. Saturday, at 3:30 p.m. Sunday or finally at 7 p.m. Sunday.
All are at the Wheeler Theater in Fort Worden State Park, 200 Battery Way, with tickets at $15 for adults and teens and $10 for children 12 and younger.
They’re available in advance at the Port Townsend Food Co-op, 414 Kearney St., and will be sold at the door if seats are still left.
Opening the show: the junior and intermediate dancers, decked out in red tutus and waving colorful fans in a piece titled “Spain,” with music by Isaac Albeniz.
Then it’s on to “Kalifornia,” a vigorous piece integrating robotic dance to the big-beat music of Fatboy Slim, and “Glass Heart,” the intermediate and advanced dancers’ contemporary ballet to a Philip Glass composition.
The performance’s en pointe piece is “Spell,” featuring just three ballerinas and a string quartet from Debussy, and then “Mambo Tonight” has the dancers dressed in flapper outfits, moving to the music of Iain MacKenzie.
The “Mambo” choreography is one of the most technically demanding, Ling Hui said, though she added that they carry it off with apparent ease.
The title piece, “The Message,” by the dancers in what’s called the committed group, is choreographed to Legend’s Academy Award-winning song “Glory” from the 2014 movie “Selma.”
In the first half, the dancers perform without musical accompaniment, and “then the powerful music of ‘Glory’ takes over,” Ling Hui said.
“The dancers match it just as powerfully.”
Ling Hui is the choreographer of all 12 pieces in this weekend’s performances. This is the 19th year in which she has staged the event.
