Shen Wei, a young choreographer born in Huan, China and a former member of the Hunan State Xian Opera Company, now living in New York, brings two fresh pieces of his innovative, minimalist choreography in the modern dance idiom to the Kennedy Center.

First on the program is The Rite of Spring (2003), set to a reduction of the Stravinsky orchestral score for two pianos. There are no jumps or lifts in this piece, and the most interesting stuff usually involves some body part other than the feet in contact with the floor. (In a post-show discussion, the choreographer said that doing calligraphy with the floor as a movement improvisation was a generator of the piece.) The company of ten, in pale gray makeup and costumes streaked with more gray, tie their limbs in knots (placing a hand behind the other elbow or a foot behind the other knee seems to be a signature for Shen Wei) and explore a range of walks and runs on half-toe. He's written a corker of a solo for himself. There's a passage that can best be described as "the meltdown," in which nine dancers stand in a line downstage, nearly motionless, while a lone dancer far upstage begins a phrase. But not entirely motionless: as the music surges dramatically, a dancer's arm will dangle at random, or an extra-deep breath will be taken. It's about organic spontaneity and rigid control. The 4-hand piano reduction works well for this introspective yet virtuosic dance.

The closing piece of the evening, Folding (2000), was created for Guangdong Dance Company, and it unfolds lyrically and slowly, so slowly as to be trance-inducing. Watching the piece is like watching a leaf drifting on the wind. There is a sweet section in which a dancer lies on the deck and puts her legs straight up in the air, and her feet knit patterns against one another in open space. Shen Wei uses a heel-and-toe walk at two speeds, fast and glacial, to cover ground, and just like a ballerina's bourrées, nothing in the torso or head moves. The piece is lit beautifully by David Ferri.

posted: 9:04:23 PM  

Kai Ryssdal of "Marketplace" is reporting from New York this week. He conducted an interview along the street that forms the northern boundary of the World Trade Center site. Now I've worked and lived in New York (briefly) so I was really puzzled when he said he was on "Vezzie" Street. I had always figured that Vesey was pronounced "Vee-zee." (Actually, KR did not fully voice the first consonant, so it sounded more like "Fezzie" Street.)

Likewise I was taken aback when I heard a native pronounce the Sch- of Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn as a Dutch "sk" instead of a German "sh." I guess he would know. And I still don't know what to do with Boerum Hill and Coenties Slip.

So, my question is, where is a good online source for looking regional pronunciations of proper names, especially street and neighborhood names?

Chicago has some sneaky regionalisms that will trip up the uninitiated. I can tell that a director of David Auburn's Proof hasn't done all his homework when he lets an actor mispronounce Diversey Street (It's "duh-VER-see.") Goethe Street is, alas, "GOE-thee" (unvoiced th), and Devon Avenue is "duh-VON."

posted: 7:17:39 PM