SILK ROADS LEAD TO FRANCE.

BIENNALE DE DANSE DE LYON

LYONS, FRANCE SEPTEMBER 8-30, 2000

Although seven hundred years have passed since Marco Polo made his illustrious twenty-five-year journey across Asia, his daring adventure continues to inspire globetrotters. It was under the influence of the Italian traveler's stories that Guy Darmet, artistic director of the French festival of dance, embarked on this year's ninth edition of the Lyon Biennale de Danse, the biggest since its inception in 1984.

"Thanks to this Biennale," commented Darmet in an interview with the French daily Le Monde, "I explored the route traveled by silk traders over 500 years ago. With this festival, I am sharing my travel diary with the public!"

It has long been said that three rivers run through the heart of the French city of Lyons: the Rhone, the Saone and the river of tears left by the city's silk workers. From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, Lyon was known throughout the world for its production of high-quality silk fabric. Although the bistanclaque, the sound of hand-powered silk machines, no longer echoes through the streets of this Italian-influenced southern city, the fine tradition of handmade silks can still be felt. It is for this reason that Darmet, the son of three generations of silk manufacturers, embarked on "The Silk Roads," making it the theme for this year's dance extravaganza.

From those travels, Darmet brought back song and dance from the four comers of Asia. For three weeks, thirty-two companies, including three from the Rhone Alps region, brought the modem-day scents, sounds, and images of the Far East to the theaters of Lyons, while 4,500 residents of the region danced through the streets in one of the festival highlights, one of Europe's largest choreographed parades.

Opening with the sparkling dragons of the Chinese Circus of Taiwan, the parade, which attracted more than 250,000 spectators, was a brilliant demonstration of the stretches of the imagination. With participants of all ages dancing on floats, alongside horses, atop stilts, in wild handmade silk costumes, the parade was a true journey of the spirit through the imaginary world of the silk trails of Asia.

Making its world premiere performance here, Jean-Claude Gallotta's The Tears of Marco Polo was met with a warm reception. Its inspiration was the two years Marco Polo spent in prison, during which time he dictated his memories of the Far East to a fellow prisoner. The dancers moved as if confined within the walls of a cell. With the help of live musicians under the direction of Shuya Xu, the piece was at times claustrophobic, dim, anxiety-ridden. It succeeded, nevertheless, in giving spectators the sensation of being out to sea or lost in a desert, caught in an ever-evolving dream.

That dream continued in the form of a Taiwanese ode to traditional Nankuan music performed in the intimate setting of the Lyons Opera Amphitheater. Under the direction of Chen Mei-O, the Han Tang Yuefu group performed The Court Songs of Ancient China, ancestral Chinese song and dance dating to the thirteenth century. Set in this tiny, dimly lit hall, the precision and sensuality of this mystical piece seemed to awe its audience. It was unanimously hailed by the critics as the jewel of the year.

Inspired by the rituals of shamanistic religious ceremonies and the poems of the great Chinese poet Qu Yuan, Hong Kong's City Contemporary Dance Company broke from tranquility with its powerful Nine Songs. Despite the ritualistic nature of the piece's theme, choreographer Helen Lai focused on the pain, anxiety and desire of today's world. Created in 1991 to a musical score by Tan Dun, Nine Songs was aggressive and explosive, giving spectators a sense of the then-impending end of British rule over Hong Kong.

Perhaps the most innovative companies invited were the young Japanese, including Kim Itoh and the Glorious Future, and a new troupe from Kyoto known as Monochrome Circus. Itoh is recognized for his work on both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific. Kim Itoh's Shonen-Shojo was a playful exploration of male-female relationships. Although happily puckish at times, ricocheting like a fast-paced game of pachinko, Itoh's solos were tinged with angst, perhaps reminding spectators that Japan's children still live in the shadow of Hiroshima.

Kyoto's Monochrome Circus, a group of Japanese artists including dancers, composers, architects, painters and photographers, founded by Kosei Sakamoto in 1990, helped close the festival with a series of four fresh and inventive short pieces. A delicate balance between poetic repetition and accelerated gestures was accomplished, notably in solos featuring Sanae Kuroko and that of Takeshi Yazaki, performed within the confines of a small square box to the incessant zapping of a Japanese radio.

The Biennale was to live on in Japan during October and November with the return to Tokyo of Kota Yamazaki and his Rosy Co. with Green Silk, a piece created in Lyons alongside 32 Janvier, a French band. In its late stages of development, the frenetic piece was previewed in the Opera Amphitheater, where it received an enthusiastic reception.

After the eclectic blend of subtle Asian traditions and modern-day artistic expression, the Biennale will take a turn south when in 2002 the tenth festival heads for South America to focus on Hispanic dance across the continent.