One Good Quote: “Things I Don’t Tell You” with Peiling Kao Dances

April 7, 2022

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In Fall 2017, Life as a Modern Dancer launched a new concept for post-performance discussion and writing. The goals are multi-fold:

What are new ways to invite post-performance writing (since so few publications now print dance reviews, and there are fewer and fewer dance critics in the United States)?
How can choreographers hear and read more from audience members about their impressions and experiences of dance events?
Can we offer new mechanisms for choreographers to gather language about their work, to further their work and to promote their work?

The premise is simple. If you experienced "Things I Don't Tell You" with Peiling Kao Dances February 25-27, 2022, please take a few minutes to leave a comment. Write down images, impressions, appreciations, and questions from the performance. These can be words, phrases, or a few sentences.

We thank you for your time, support, and thoughtfulness. Here's to more dialogue, more reflection, and more writing on the dance performance experience. As choreographer Mariah Steele noted, we are "democratizing dance criticism."

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One response to “One Good Quote: “Things I Don’t Tell You” with Peiling Kao Dances”

Donna Blanchard

Apr 17, 2022 at 4:20 pm

Dancer and choreographer Peiling Kao’s piece, Things I Don’t Tell You is so engaging and moving – no pun intended – that I found myself wondering about what heartfelt messages are not said during our everyday exchanges of communication, and where we can find them.
This piece features four dancers, interacting with and supporting each other as they move in and out of their own spotlight.
Without knowing any background of the piece, it was clear from the start that each of the performers was sharing a unique, personal message with us, something normally left unsaid.
One seems determined to punish their own body before becoming comfortable with it.
One appears to contort himself effortlessly… and with precise sadness.
One moves sensuously, and with fierce boundaries.
And one almost comically at times tells us the story of a void filled with objects rather than human contact.
Alone, those are intriguing story-lines; together, they are a community. Watching, I suddenly have the realization that everyone in the full theatre with me also has a dance, and I wonder how many of us are willing to share.
I later learned that each of the dancers was invited to begin with their story set to dance under Kao’s direction. Then those pieces were shared with writers who responded with words based on those abstractions. Kao then used those words to “wreck” the solo work by changing it to reflect the words rather than the original dance or story. Like all work of her’s, the concept is a fresh and inventive exploration of how our stories reside in our movements.
Something I love about Peiling Kao’s work is that when I don’t understand it, it still pulls in to let it wash over me. Suddenly, I see a message here, then there… and it begins to form a meaning unique to me. Her work reflected in skilled performances always makes me sense the depth and breadth of our unexpressed yet shared humanity. I feel expanded after spending a few hours with Things I Don’t Tell You and grateful for the reminder that we each hold so much within us, and if you let it wash over you, eventually you will see a message here, then there…

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