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Painting with ribbons

By Sean Mulhair
The Collegian

Award-winning Bay Area choreographer Lily Cai returns to Fresno State with a performance of traditional Chinese dance mixed with her own blend of modern western theater.

Choreographer Cai said her newest piece titled “Silk Cascade” will feature historical, ornate costumes and traditional Chinese dance more than 2,500 years old. The performance will be divided into four scenes or “dynasties” ranging from 500 B.C. to today. The dancers will paint images in midair with one-hundred 18-foot silk ribbons.

Cai said the Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company consists of six women ages 21-30. Cai founded her dance company in 1988 and later co-founded Chinese Cultural Productions. The group is famous for its kaleidoscopic ribbon dancing.

“Our ribbon dancing is a very traditional Chinese performance, but our kind of ribbon dancing was also inspired by western ballet and American artist Jackson Pollock,” Cai said.

According to Cai’s Chinese Dance Company Web site, www.ccpsf.org, Shanghai native Cai was the principal dancer at the Shanghai Opera House before moving to California in 1983. Cai’s company tours extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Its most notable performance was at the United Nations’ 50th anniversary in San Francisco in 1995, and it performed with the band Grateful Dead in 1994.

Reports from Cai’s home page said she received two outstanding achievement awards in 1996 from the Isadora Duncan Awards Committee for her original production “Common Ground.”

In 2003 she received two commission works: “Si Ji” (translated: “four seasons”) for the S

an Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and “Madame Mao” the world premiere for the Santa Fe Opera.
Cai was also a panelist for the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Council according to the Web site.

San Francisco Chronicle writer Joshunda Sanders said when Cai first came to the U.S. the first thing she noticed was most Americans knew very little about Chinese culture.

“They know Chinese food, but not much about our dance. They don’t know a lot about where we’re coming from,” Cai said.

Sanders said Cai has been dancing since she was five years old, when she danced on her bed in front of her siblings.

“The arts are usually not high on the list of what Asian parents want their children to become,” said Tatwina Lee, a volunteer with the Chinese Culture Foundation.

“We have very few role models for successful artists in Chinese culture, but Cai stands as a good example of why the arts can be a valid mission in life.”

USU Productions event organizer Josh Edrington said the dance company will perform Saturday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union.

Tickets are free for students and $5 for general public.

“Silk Cascade” will feature music from traditional Chinese opera and western orchestras with large projected environmental backdrops planned to accentuate each mood of the dynasties.


	October 28, 2005 California State University, Fresno