In The Studio with Brian Carey Chung

Friday May 28, 2010 – Kokyat and I went down to the Baryshnikov Arts Center where the tall and ultra-handsome choreographer Brian Carey Chung of Collective Body Dance Lab was working with young dancers from The Joffrey School on a piece to be presented Tuesday June 1st at the Skirball Center. Click on the pictures to enhance.

The work is entitled Message to Al and is set to the brink-of-madness music of Gorecki’s harpsichord concerto. When we arrived the girls were in practice clothes and Brian was pulling his choreography apart and working without the music on individual moves and combinations. He uses a lot of imagery when describing to the young dancers exactly what he wants to see. 

The girls then donned white tutus and Brian began running the piece with music. A feeling of nearly demented restlessness pervades the work while the tutus give it an ironically classic feel. This seeming dichotomy actually works well thanks to Brian’s sense of structure and subtle references to balletic vocabulary woven into a contemporary fabric.

The dancers – beauties all, with gorgeous hair as an added attraction – threw themselves into Brian’s combinations with zest, sometimes seeming like a clan of young Wilis or swans. It’s a great piece and I’d love to see it embellished-upon and developed into something larger.

The choreographer Brian Carey Chung.

The setting sun outside the huge BAC studio windows gave Kokyat some gorgeous light to shoot by.