Moonlight is the second phase of an exploration begun by Daloy Dance Co. in 2018 for the Cultural Center of the Philippines' NeoFilipino Series with their piece entitled Howl. With Howl, the corps of dancers undertook the challenge of folding different lexicons of movement together: drawing vocabulary from the club kids, ravers and the voguing ball scene, and weaving it in with systems of motion and symmetry in animal species: flocks of birds, schools of fish, cicada swarms, cats howling at the moon.
Led by a steadily thrumming score of trance music, the dancers flow through compounded cycles of choreographed expressions. These expressions progress from a rigorous, almost military synchronicity into a series of schisms and a full structural breakdown. And the dance progresses out of unity and into chaos. In that chaotic space of primal release, Daloy Dance Co. first encountered Moonlight. If Howl was a call into the void, Moonlight is who answered it.
In Moonlight, Daloy Dance Co. takes the exploration further, posing the questions: Can chaos lead to bliss? Can trance transcend?
Moonlight leads the ensemble of dancers through a sequence of movement investigations that aim to bring them into an ecstatic state. Structured as an homage to ancient shamanic rites of passage, as well as to the filipino legacy of the queer babaylan, Moonlight is a performed visitation. A wounded healer visits the dancers - hard-worn and wise, beyond species, gender, or time - and endeavours to guide them through a journey toward emancipation. In this season plagued by fear and grief, Moonlight appears and dares us to shake ourselves free from all we know, shed all doubt, and reach for our bliss.
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Title: Moonlight
Direction and Choreography: ACC alumna Ea Torrado
Performance: Ea Torrado and Daloy Dance Company
Presented by Pnoise X Nordlys 2.0 Fringe MNL Festival
FREE EVENT!