Roots II
Choreography and dance by:
Weichen Cui 崔未尘 & Lu Wang 王璐
Music by:
Adrienne Shoenfeld, Michael Wall, Ceeys, and Hans Zimmer
Lighting design by:
Yiyuan Li
Tisch Dance: A Goodbye Performance
May 12, 2022
Jack Crystal Theater, 111 2nd Ave, New York.This work was inspired by a humble lucky bamboo I kept beside the sink in the Long Island City apartment I was staying. One evening, after dinner, I was chatting with Lulu when she said, “Anything can be a source of creation.” “Exactly,” I replied, “like this bamboo right here.”
The bamboo floated quietly in the water, showing no sign of growth, as if frozen in time. Yet, every time I changed its water and pulled it from the vase, I could feel its silent progress. I vividly remember how the kitchen light that evening passed through the glass vase, casting the shadow of its submerged roots onto the table—dappled, swaying. In that patch of light and shadow, I felt as if I could truly see something growing.
When the piece later came to life under Yiyuan’s lighting design, it always reminded me of the lines from Lin Bu’s “Mountain Garden Plum Blossoms”:
“Sparse shadows slant across shallow water,
Subtle fragrance drifts under the moon at dusk.”
At the time, it was Lulu’s winter. The poem’s closing lines lingered in my mind as something I wanted to tell her:
“With soft verses, we keep each other company,
No need for clinking goblets or extravagant feasts.”
Eventually, Lulu and I parted ways. Looking back at the title of the piece, I often feel an ironic nudge from fate: a drifter like me, daring to call a work Roots. What are my roots? Where do they lie? The bamboo floating in water remains silent, quietly growing.
这个作品来源于我在纽约生活时公寓洗手台边养着的一棵水生lucky bamboo。那晚我与lulu饭后闲聊，lulu说她觉得一切都可以成为创作的来源。“没错，”我附和道，“就比如眼前这棵竹子。”
那棵竹子一直安静的漂在水中，也不见长高，仿佛一切是静止的，只有每次换水把竹子拔出瓶子时才能感受到它的生长。我记得那晚厨房的灯光透过玻璃瓶子，把水中根须的影子映在桌子上，斑驳，摇曳。在那一片被光铺开的阴影中，我好像真真切切的看到了有东西在生长。
后来作品在Yiyuan的灯光加持下，总让我想到林逋《山园小梅》中的两句：“疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏”。那段时间是lulu的冬天。而诗的最后两句恰好也是我想对她说的，“幸有微吟可相狎，不须檀板共金樽。”
再后来，我们分开了。回头看作品的取名，常有被命运暗暗嘲讽的感觉：你这个四处漂泊的人，居然胆敢给作品取名叫Roots，你的roots是什么，又在哪里呢？漂浮在水里的竹子没有说话，只是安静的生长。