Double Happiness, One Hundred Sorrows

About the Performance

Premiered: La Mama Annex, NYC

Double Happiness, 100 Sorrows is a vivid work by choreographer H.T. Chen that focuses on the loss of innocence and the institution of marriage in Asian cultures. The Chinese calligraphy for the word marriage depicts the character happiness twice, side by side. Using traditional fans with long silk attached, the dancers are players-within-a-play in a tale about an unhappy marriage. The piece is set in Shanghai during the 1940s, a time of great political and cultural change in modern China’s history.

Performers

Hikari Baba, Chao-Hui Chou, Cathy Lin, William Petroni, Osamu Uehara, Sheila Carreras, Jennifer DeLuca, Martha Mason