HEADS UP! New Dance-Theater from Vietnamese Choreographer this weekend!

This looks good -- an artist not yet heard in our neighborhood and a timeless theme. Plus references to things we may know something about.

In its welcome mission of bringing outstanding international artists to our
local performance scene, UCLA Live is hosting the Los Angeles debut of award-winning Company Ea Sola at Royce Hall for two shows this weekend. Raised in Vietnam during the war and trained in Paris, the female choreographer-performer Ea Sola incorporates traditional culture, music, dance and the history of Vietnam in
this 2005 work. Whereas some of her previous work was performed by peasant women between the ages of fifty and seventy-five, this touring company consists of twelve dancers from the Vietnam National Opera Ballet-Hanoi.

Described in promotional materials as "a passionate reflection of the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of the next generation," the work also includes original music performed live by five musicians and Vietnamese opera singer Doan Thanh Binh.

With a background in dance-theater workshops led by Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, dancing with Japanese butoh artist Min Tanaka and a great interest in Noh theater and the polyphonic sounds of central Africa, Sola has had her work presented in New York City and throughout Europe and Asia. After leaving Vietnam as a teenager in 1974, she returned to her homeland to research traditional dance and music in 1989 and began creating full length work soon after that. Continuing to explore memories of war and transnational identity, “Drought and Rain Vol. 2” includes framed photographs of victims of war from the US, the Middle East, Europe and Vietnam.

WHAT: Company Ea Sola performing "Drought and Rain Vol. 2”

WHEN: Friday-Saturday, Jan. 25-26 at 8 p.m.

WHERE: UCLA Live at Royce Hall

TICKETS: $40, $30, $22; $15 students
Ticketmaster and 310-825-2101

ONLINE: www.uclalive.org

Photos provided by company