Dance review: Jin Xing Dance Theatre offers abstract but dramatic flair in Wild Flowers

野花 Wild Flowers

by Jin Xing Dance Theatre (Shanghai)
Esplanade Theatre
Monday, 8pm

For 75 minutes, the ebb and flow of 16 dancers from Shanghai-based Jin Xing Dance Theatre filled the Esplanade Theatre stage. Their non-stop undulations billowed out to carry the audience away with their energy. Their movements are a consistent match for the relentless pulse of Berlin-based composer Christian Meyer’s music. 

This is the first time Wild Flowers, which premiered in 2018, has been presented in Singapore, but it marks the third time the company performs here for, as artistic director Jin Xing, 56, terms them, “fans and friends”. 

Jin’s celebrity status was evident in the warm reception that she received when introducing the company and the dance. The introduction itself was a masterful performance delivered in English and Mandarin.

Her appearance was clearly a treat for the audience that included many young children. Jin’s warmth and candid humour immediately connected with the audience and explains why she is called the “Oprah of China”. 

Wild Flowers is the second collaboration between Jin and Dutch director and choreographer Arthur Kuggeleyn. Its abstract but dramatic flair balances Chinese culture and Western approaches in the balletic lines combined with curving pathways of the spine and arms. The costumes by Jin Xing also balance the rigidity of blazers against the softness of flowing floral robes.   

The dance is not story-driven but is a buffet of images evolving one after the other: disturbing, cheeky and beautiful. Female dancers, hanging upside-down, carried by their waists with limbs flopping like rag dolls. Rows of dancers with satisfied grins kneel on the floor as they thrust their hips forward to bounce a relaxed arm upwards in time with the beat. Bodies grouped together with arms outstretched and hands like flowers blooming on a tree. 

Little surprises are peppered through the repetitive movements to create subtle highlights. A leg quickly kicked out, one dancer in the pulsing sea of bodies using more force than the others. The persistent pulse never becomes boring, but gradually morphs at just the right time. 

Wild Flowers lives up to Jin’s initial claim that it would carry the spirit of Jin Xing Dance Theatre to “push boundaries away and bloom with freedom”.

The dancers wore enigmatic and somewhat seductive smiles, inviting and revelling in the audience’s gaze throughout the dance, imbuing it with the same confident and insouciant charm that Jin possesses.

 Naturally, the audience showed as much enthusiastic appreciation for the dance as they did for Jin.