LI CHIAO-PING.

LI CHIAO-PING CAMPBELL HALL, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA NOVEMBER 21, 1998

Li Chiao-Ping in performance is a case of the dancer transcending the dance. "The Men's Project" featured sixty-eight minutes of pure unbridled Li: strength, elasticity, drama, and athleticism.

Although the program introduced the evening as "The Changing Faces of the Men of American Modern Dance," the face that changed, over and over again in this program of six solos, was Li's. Works by Gus Solomons jr, Joe Goode, David Dorfman, Daniel Nagrin, Mel Wong, and Mark Dendy passed through Li's body in an effortless series of transformations that paid tribute to her performative prowess. It was like following someone who speaks six languages fluently across six borders into six different elysia.

All six solos were choreographed for Li in 1996. What a joy it must have been for those artists to have a dancer so physically capable and emotionally present with whom to work. For each choreographic variable, Li remained the constant: riveting, powerful grace.

The strongest piece on the program, Dendy's Aria, set to an aria from Alfredo Catalani's La Wally, placed Li in the role of diva. With her arms covered in the jelly bracelets made famous by Madonna, Li expressed dramatic angst from the tips of her fingers to the edges of her eyebrows. Everything danced through stillness, tension, and release.

The opening sequence of Goode's I Dreamt I Should Not Reach Higher Than This featured Li in Jackie O attire rapidly repeating bursty, slappy, churning, chugging phrases against an aggressive drum solo. In Dorfman's Fall she was off balance and running. In the more classical modern pieces by Wong, Nagrin, and Solomons, Li displayed technical profundity and fluid polish. All the elements of her training--gymnastics, martial arts, and modern dance--combined seamlessly. When Li's onstage, you don't want to blink.