Press – Yonder Woman

“A female breakdancing laboratory, generating surreal, ethereal and cunning legworks. This manner of dissociating limbs to assemble them again upside down is like a Picasso set to dance. […] a new architecture, as suggestive as it is joyful, as mischievous as it is surgically precise. Another form of breakdancing has been made possible!”

“[Anne Nguyen] gives a brand new face to powermoves dismantling series of moves and reconstructing them. Circles are turned into linear courses, right angles and interrupted trajectories. Thus is created a lively modular system, a blend of breakdance and contact dance which dissolves the body’s natural order, like in Pablo Picasso. Anne Nguyen applies the principle to legworks. Paradoxically, with her, it looks natural.”

“A dancer enters and moves around on an empty stage, looking straight ahead at the auditorium. Her dance props, as befits hip-hop, are a nod to the special power in these movements and the reshuffling of space. The power of physical movement is made stronger by the percussive rhythms and manipulation of sound (score by Benjamin Magnin). The rhythm at once inhibits and exalts the driving forces of hip-hop and breakdancing, before undergoing a new transformation in which well-established dance stereotypes are taken down to their essence, only to be reformed as new compositions. In search of a point of balance, the dancer’s unusual movements seek alignment, then, for a moment, are sustained, hovering in silent, static fascination, at once physical and emotional. Individual motifs continue to multiply, deepening and enriching the original vocabulary of a dance duet that initially relies on girlish playfulness, but then sharpens up through the fierce competitive drama taking place, finally exploring and examining the spheres of co-existence. Yonder Woman a humorously conceived half-hour performance of intense dance and decomposed movements, is painstakingly formulated and broken down with precision into the prime factors of movement. The dancers exhibit a visually astonishing physical harmony, a new metaphor for superhuman strength, the strength of a super-sensitive woman, a heroine of the modern world.”

“Of course, Yonder Womanis “Wonder Woman”, with all the clichés that go with it: beauty, strength, efficiency and all the rest. Anne Nguyen and Valentine Nagata-Ramos, hip-hop choreographers and breakdance experts, take stereotypes and run them through the mill to give us new images of modern women. Neither dolls, nor sex bombs, neither warrioresses nor super heroines, but a little bit of everything, and above all, they are determined, even in their vulnerability.”

“[Anne Nguyen] develops and hones her research into the vocabulary of breakdance “as if in a laboratory”: breaking down circles and replacing them with straight lines and right angles, while imbricating bodies according to strict geometrical principles. Thus, Anne Nguyen gives life to two kobolds; they could almost be sisters, or friends, slightly childlike and impish. In this danced animation, they are discovering the world and can act, head on the ground and feet in the air, as if they walked like this every day. Is woman the future of hip-hop?”

“Yonder Woman requires […] the public’s collaboration, prompting it […] to examine the stage through a microscope. Before our eyes, two laboratory guinea pigs turn in circles, observing each other. Trapped by an oppressive determinism, Anne Nguyen and Valentine Nagata-Ramos battle it out with each other and finally, as one, rid themselves of their chains. From this simple argument there emerges a wonderful dance of life. We could almost be witnessing the birth of energy itself. A liberating piece.”

“In Yonder Woman, female breakdance experts Anne Nguyen and Valentine Na¬gata-Ramos illustrate the battle of two combatants trying to outplay one another. They take the speed out of the moving figures, so that the sequences can be seen with clarity, exploiting this deceleration to make contact or interlock with the other, or to step over the other. Headspin is, of course, a must, but after all is said and done, these dancers are creating a relaxed personal encounter between human beings.”

Braunschweiger Zeitung – Andreas Berger (September 2012) / Germany

“Anne is a singular voice in today’s hip-hop world. She fervently asserts her femininity with top-quality choreographic work. She shows how two young women can project themselves into situations that society does not usually reserve for them. It becomes both the question that faces the super-heroine and a heroic statement”.

“Yonder Woman, the fourth production by dancer Anne Nguyen (who is, herself, the winner of numerous breakdancing competitions, as is her dance partner) deconstructs and reshapes this predominantly male art form. It is a laboratory of female breakdancing with surrealist, subtle and humorous legwork. Turned on its head, with limbs detached and then reattached, the piece could have been created by a dancing Picasso. The difference is that, with them, everything appears natural, even when their legs point skywards and their heads turn towards the floor.”

“Their dance has something primal, is minimalist, reminiscent of martial arts, such as kung fu. Many motion sequences are performed on the floor; the duo for instance incorporate animal movements in their piece, crawl along the floor and roll out of the way only to continue the move as a giraffe—all the while maintaining body contact with each other. Suddenly harsh and fast electronic music sounds out, the two women start breakdancing and demonstrate that female break-dancers are by no means inferior in the male-dominated hip-hop scene.”