Duck and Cover - The monkey and the lion
a project in coorparation with White Lotus.
Anh Quoc Nguyen: Monkey, Benny Dao & Dang Thanh Nguyen: Lion, Benjamin Lu(drums), Van Diep Pham (cymbals), Michael Hong (gong): Three monkey musicians. Projection by Benjamin Lu.
TEAM WHILO!:)
This semester costume design assignment was to do a short performance inspired by the civil defense video for children
"Duck and Cover". Somehow I was drawn by my roots and discovered my old friend Benjamin's crew
"White Lotus". They are a high motivated dance group mixing traditional lion dance with hip hop, freestyle, tricking and modern dance. I accompanied them for about two months(You've seen the pictures of the Dschungelnächte) to see what it is that they do and how they do it. Three weeks before the performance we started to actually rehears. It was defenitely a new and exciting experience for all of us!
The first rehearsal was actually only excercises to gain a feeling for the room and your own body, sense each other and building trust. Then we worked more specifically on the scenes.
It was such a roller coaster! We had so much to laugh about during practice and in the end I was very proud of the guys! The audience might not have seen how much work the guys actually put in their work but it was defenitely a huge process to get to that point! People also may ask why did I choose to do this? Aren't you studying costume design? Why didn't you make any of the costumes? Honestly I'm not good at "making costumes". My goal was just to do what I like and make a playful performance for a wide spread audience - young and old - to watch. My challenge was to focus on the group and direct them to new experiences on stage. A project worth for everyone and with the honest skills of each. I was really touched to get to know each of them and I'm really excited to see how they are going to do in the future. So thank you for the amazing time again! I'm so grateful that I had the chance to work with you guys! Keep it up!
Also thank you to everyone that came to watch the performance! And if anyone has more pictures from that day please send it to me! The only ones I have are sadly in a bad quality... Here some impressions!
Second rehearsal about 2 weeks before (screenshots from a video) at Kultur Palast Hamburg
Pharell Williams - Happy! Clap along if you feel that happiness is the truth!
Special thanks to Marc. Practice at the gyma about a week before
At the Aula in the Armgarstraße 3 days before..
Day of the performance couple of hourse before..
Special thanks to my muuum!
Impressions of the performance (screenshots of WhiLo's videomaterial)
Epic moment..
He was alright after that!
Peace! (c) White Lotus taken by Julia
Here the video Julia took while standing next to me!:D
Cheeeeeeers!:D
Bisous Domino
