The young choreographer’s work reflects this same simple elegance. She doesn’t concern herself with great themes, rather she deals with individual experiences, fears and questions.

Ly’s first major performance, Mot ngay (One Day), was a unique exploration of daily life in Hanoi.

Ly Ly’s choreography refracted the sensations of a single day in Hanoi as seen through several different perspectives in a dazzling array of movement and images. Dance, light sound, still and moving pictures, mannequins and dancers all interacted with each other on stage.

“Each person has their own feelings during the same day. One may have a hard day while the other has an easy day. It can be bright for some but dark for someone else. My choreography aims to be the kaleidoscope that reflects this diversity,” says Ly.

Ly and her young Vietnamese dancers painted a refreshingly light and lively picture full of mischievous irony, focusing on present day life in Vietnam’s bustling capital.

The 2006 show was a hit with audiences and critics alike and went on to headline the Europe Days 2007 program, a week of cultural exchanges between Vietnam and European Union member states.

Song trong chiec hop (Living in a Box), which premiered in 2007, was Ly’s second independent choreography project and was highly anticipated following the success of Mot ngay.

Together with the German lighting director Herbert Cybulska, Ly also teamed up with dancers from the National Theater for Ballet and Opera.

Ly again showcased her unbounded creativity and simple philosophy through seductive dance and movement.

The leitmotiv of Song trong chiec hop was the human experience that connects us all through our senses: the images, colors, smells and sounds of the world around us with which we construct our memories and feelings.

The “Box” refers to the closed personal world we sometimes retreat into when we are lonely. The dancers carry these boxes around with them, grapple with them, and search for ways to come to terms with them. In the end the two main characters lean against each other, looking at dewdrops.

Ly says the dewdrop symbolizes all she ever wanted to tell her audiences.

“When we have a life to live, lead a good life….Like a dewdrop. It looks gorgeous but it will vanish under the sunlight.”

Beginnings

Born in 1978, Tran Ly Ly knew she wanted to be a dancer from a young age.

Her father was principal of the Vietnam Dance College and her mother a ballet dancer at the Vietnam Theater of Dance and Opera.

After graduating from high school, Ly decided to study abroad. A determined young woman, she mastered English on her own and won a scholarship to major in Dance at Australia’s Boxhill Technology Institute in 1997.

Ly returned to Vietnam three years later and began lecturing at her father’s college while choreographing what would later become Mot ngay and Song trong chiec hop.

A scene from Tran Ly Ly’s acclaimed dance performance Mot ngay (One day)

Source: Tuoi Tre