Dongpo : Life in Poems at the Kennedy Center by David Dowling

Dongpo : Life in Poems by Shen Wei

Sunday, March 10, 2024 1:30p.m.

The Kennedy Center Opera House

by David Dowling

In 16th century Spain there lived a nun, known today as St. Teresa of Ávila. Among the things we remember her for include her accomplishment as the first of only four women to have been named doctor of the church, and a holy war fought she within her own brain and body. While no longer religious myself, what I’ve kept from St. Teresa is a simple string of words repeated by my father when I was still young enough to claim innocence as an argument for passivity; “God is in the pots and pans”. It is something that has always stuck with me. Now the church would have you believe this chestnut to suggest that “God is everywhere”, but I instead interpreted this to be life is beauty, and it exists most purely in tasks of the mundane. So when I saw the words of celebrated Chinese poet Su DongPo “In simple joys, the true flavor of life I find” projected upon the scrim of the Kennedy Center opera house in Shen Wei’s Dongpo: Life in Poems, I felt a return to an old familiarity. It is infinitely interesting that asprawl the centuries, languages, and beliefs there could co-exist two ideologies in similar nature. -and there is that nature present in Dongpo: Life in Poems. The six act work and its accompanying text are a important reminder that today we are wiser, and now is the time to open our gifts. We need not labor all the day for treasures in heaven on the morrow, despite what Matthew 6:19 might decree. May we honor the past, but celebrate the future. To take another blasphemous step, here exists an appreciation of life outside of a divine being. Here we are the divine being. Credit where credit is finally due.

Dongpo: Life in Poems is the choreographical achievement of Master Shen Wei (not to be confused with the highly syncopated stylings and mall kiosk staple, Shen Yun) and can be described partially as a multimedia experience but more colorfully as, “there are levels to this”. That isn’t merely a topical pun nor apt usage of modern lexicon, it is a testament and a compliment. Levels play a huge role in framing the dancers of  the China Oriental Performing Arts Group and the Meishan Song and Dance Theatre. From the near get go we are made aware that Master Wei will be drawing upon the top, center, front and back of the stage. There will be depths of field behind scrim and projections and poetry. There will be syncopation, but it is a good kind, with dancers utilizing non-extremity manipulation. Of special note is the dedication of the performers to continue their characters beyond our sight lines. I was sitting orchestra right and not once did I see a dancer break their stride or stance when traveling beyond what a centered stage patron might see. There will be a respectful history but there will also be a march toward the future, and might I add, a dignified one. There will be rickshaws and calligraphy, a live Guqin musician in Zhao Xiaoxia but there will also be a goddess descending a spiraling incline on a skateboard, her heavenly hair flowing as it was when it was a brush used in the aforementioned writing. I must add that this skateboarding queen appears twice and we are lucky she did not appear a third time, less she “Mercutio the play”. She may require her own spinoff one day.

If all this wasn’t enough, there exists humility and grace. Though not immediately opposite as were the previous examples, it seemed a purposeful choice from Wei that the male-male partnering consisting of Su Peng and a younger dancer would allow a second, newer star to shine as bright and brighter than the elder spheroid of plasma. Grace is further extended by the playing of Zhao Xiaoxia, whose live accompaniment tot eh dancing is saved for later, and is worth the wait. Many of the casual audience will have flashbacks to the 2002 film Hero and Liu Li playing behind the famous duel of Jet Li and Donnie Yen. Xiaoxia brings an authenticity to the show, and the past comes alive in her fingers.

Of course my favorite aspects of the show are in its modern displays. I might be biased but to see both male and female dancers in exactly the same costume is a always a win. The costumes of canvas skirts and colorful waistbands are a triumph, matched only by the later appearance of what I can only describe as “super-hero” garbs. It is unexpected and welcomed after the previous minutes with more traditional and toned down apparel. Not to say they aren’t a sight when they travel in numbers, almost as if to be apparitions of the past.

Dongpo: Life in Poems is, as Emanuel Schikaneder in Amadeus might say, a triumph deluxe.This review has been purposefully vague because the show must be experienced as purely and untainted as possible. While presented in six acts, I’d have stayed for sixty. A true congratulations to Master Shen Wei, the dancers, the musician and the staff. Speaking of staff, a special kudos and congratulations to the tech team of the Kennedy Center for achieving the feat of immersion, razor sharp projections and the flawless carting in and out of sets and stairways.

*A special thank you to Maida Withers for the tickets and the company!

David Dowling (he/him) (@isitmodern) is the founder of Dancing in the District and works to make video and photography accessible and affordable to artists of the DC Metro area.