Eclectic ‘Dynasty’ a Stylish Work

The San Francisco-based Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company is, without doubt, lovely to look at. The seven women who performed Saturday at Orange Coast College’s Moore Theatre are also excellent technicians. But style took precedence over substance in a three-part program that attempted to span centuries of dance but proved to be choreographically redundant and surface-oriented.

“Dynasty Suite,” Cai’s set of five short works, sought to meld classical, folk and contemporary movement through the use of costumes, props and original taped music by Gang Situ and Gary Schwantes. “Basket Girls” featured a tableau in which the dancers--Mandy Huang, Tammy Li, Rita Liang, Ada Liu, Phong Voong and Lucy Yu--displayed exaggerated hip thrusts and small quick steps while toting baskets on pliable twigs. “Dance From Tang” saw Liu and Voong twirling scarlet ribbons amid the execution of graceful backward bends. “Dance From Qing” had company members balancing on high wooden platform shoes, and “Straw Hat Girl” featured a wavy-armed solo by Cai, whose face was obscured by the aforementioned hat.

“Begin From Here,” Cai’s 20-minute ode to her immigrant journey, was hampered by a contrived Situ-Schwantes synthesized score and lack of choreographic invention. Almost all ribbon dancing, the work brimmed with energetic bursts of color and design that sometimes resembled a Pollock splatter painting. Forever undulating, the dancers also let loose with explosive lunges and athletic one-leg stances.

“Candelas,” set to Mahler’s famous Adagietto, had dancers wielding dozens of burning candles, becoming, in effect, a human candelabra. The visual impact soon fizzled, but Liberace would have loved it.