Wen Wei Dance mesmerized audiences at l’Agora de la danse last week with what is undeniably the best dance show so far this season. Choreographer Wen Wei was inspired by his personal memory and family history to create a work that is both compelling and haunting.
While visiting the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Wei remembered that some women still had bound feet when he was a child in China. His grandmother was one of these women. With this painful process, women’s feet were prevented from growing naturally so as to be considered more aesthetically pleasing. This recollection gave Wei the idea to integrate the small shoes women of the Chinese opera had to wear into one of his own choreographies. His latest show, Unbound, was then born.
From darkness, a red lantern is lit and lifted above the stage. It may be unusual to first mention the mise-en-sc
