It was such a pleasure to see a Chicago not for profit dance company, Identity Performing Arts, now in its seventh season, meet such high levels of ballet and modern dance!

With several choreographed pieces by Founder and Artistic Director Ginny Ching-Yin Lo under her belt, the premiere of Enliven will mark her 10th creative work. Lo, born in Hong Kong and trained with the Hong Kong Ballet, is both a choreographer and dancer whose works have been performed in the US as well as in China, France, and Germany.

I can't say enough about the sensual and energizing choreography by Ginny Ching-Yin Lo!

In her own words…

Perpetual

This piece premiered in Spring 2023. Perpetual reveals the delicate balance between our dual natures. Experience the angelic and the demonic, all under the veil of ethereal love, harmoniously juxtaposed and eternally connected. While precisely executed, this piece was beautifully fluid and, in many moments, hypnotic, and was the perfect opening segment for what the rest of the performance was to offer. 

Ginny has a great gift for staging and creating multiple levels of emotional depth and the feeling of synchronicity in action for her talented group of nine dancers.

Kindred

There was an interesting and refreshing 15-minute multi-media short film presentation by director Spence Warren of the premiere of Ching-Yin Lo's piece titled Kindred.

Kindred is a celebration of the merging and new possibilities that arise when individual artists get together to collaborate creatively.  

The short film was shot in one 8-hour day in a sunny private home with dancers striking beautiful and sometimes somber poses on common objects like stairwells, tabletops and even on top of beds, which gave this piece a modern identifiable setting that made you realize that our homes can also be a place for the physical expressions of creative dance.

Enliven

The final third of the program was Lo's premiere of her newest piece Enliven.

I am including the music choices for this piece because they were so striking and perfect with Ginny Ching-Yin Lo’s flowing, powerful and sexy choreography; Enliven Music: “Lemon Tree” by Jingxuan (Guzheng) and Felix Nunes (Cello), “China Wind” by Zhuolin Wang, “Fusion” by Estas Tonne”, “Abundance” by Future of the Forestry, “Glittery Green Vibrations” by Wilson Hicken and “Mortise & Tenon” by Young Yan.

I would like to acknowledge the dancers, all of whom were classically trained and surpassed my high level of expectation for a dance troupe under Lo's direction. The dance ensemble included Josephine Castillo, Mark Gonzalez, Mackenzi Bolyard-Pizaῆa, Amelia Harris, Audrey Hartnett, Wilson Hicken, Hayley Midea, Hanley Simpson, and Tiana Thompson.

While the two male dancers were clearly skilled and dynamic in their own right, it was the seven women in this troupe that really exuded full expression of this stunning and complex choreography and were just fascinating to watch. Also, the use of lighting for both live works performed was perfectly managed to effectively heighten the experience, creating dream-like sequences.

Ginny Ching-Yin Lo states that her mission is to create dance that addresses "universal societal issues and affirms the values of our individual and community diversity with the intent to heal and restore." And I really felt a sense of meditative restoration and exuberance while enjoying this program. Lo has achieved and will continue to achieve her goal of "healing and restoring" the senses by reminding her audiences of the healing qualities of eternal and ethereal love in motion.

Recently performed at Ruth Page Center for the Arts and again this past weekend at Studio5 in Evanston, I highly recommend this exciting, stimulating yet peaceful dance program and future performances by Identity Performing Arts to audiences of ALL ages for dance lovers who are accustomed to seeing high quality ballet and modern dance.

For upcoming events and more information on this wonderful dance company, visit www.identityperformingarts.org.