Dancing Moons Festival 2025
Oakland Ballet May 4, 2025
Paramount Theater Oakland
“Angel Island”
The Oakland Ballet returned to the Paramount Theater this past weekend (May 4, 2025) with an unusual, fascinating and brilliantly performed event: “Angel Island”. The ballet in eight scenes has many dimensions. It ‘tells’ the story of Chinese immigration to the US from the “Massacre of 1871” to and through several heroic episodes. All the dancing is unusual, remarkable and beautifully performed, employing ballet vocabulary with unique gesture integral to the cast.
The program is printed in English and Chinese to assist those who are familiar with the languages. It is an unusual and beneficial dimension to program information. Various choreographers contributed to the eight sections of the work. These were: I. Wei Wang II. Ye Feng III. Elaine Kudo. IV: Ashly Thopiah & Lawrence Chen. V. Wei Wang. VI. Phil Chen VII. Natasha Adorlee. ViII. Phil Chen. All choreographers produced beautiful, appropriate movement for the company. All sections continued though the 90 minutes of the afternoon performance without a break.
“Angel Island” is a ballet that should be toured to all communities to bring awareness of immigration, of dance’s ability to ‘tell’ a story such as this and to delight audiences with the skill and creative dimensions that “Angel Island” brings. It should become a required event. (note) Although this author is a dancer and appreciates the history and technique of all dance, ‘toe shoes’ a French/Russian invention for women’s feet) does not ‘feel’ right for this work. It is tradition and technique, but ‘toe shoes’ clash with the ethnic dimension here.
Music for the Angel Island Project was excellently provided by the Del Sol Quartet and the Volti Ensemble. Lighting: Emma Rodrigues: Costume Design: Alysia Cang and Kaori Higashiyama. Choreography: Members of the company.