Mike Vargas/ Andrew Harwood/ Ray Chung/Nancy Stark Smith

opening piano solo for "Figment", an improvised performance Warsaw during the Flow Festival, summer of 2014. this clip is only about half of the whole piece...there is dancing without music, and eventually in the piece (though it's not on this video) the piano comes back in and joins the dancers, followed by a short video by MV.

[@kingofaikido]

This was, at once, gross and engrossing to watch. The engrossing part was to see Nancy Stark Smith, at her age, continuing to be as lithe and supple as anyone half her age. But in spite of her efforts to engage both dancers on equal terms, this stellar effort was overcast by strong overtones of racism in Andrew Harwood performance. In spite of Ray Chung's almost kung-fu or ju-jitsu moves that subtly unbalance Harwood's overtures to step under his groin, Harwood remains unrelenting in his slaps, kicks to the head, in his consistent and conspicuous Asian bashing. This was an amazing revelation, that we cannot escape embedded and embodied racism even in the most seemingly neutral exchange of movement ideas. Sick!

[@seb416]

I just watched and felt flow, weight, suggestion, compromise, flow, trust, occaisonal surprise,

[@Tibug]

We must have watched different movies.

[@luvclip-dot-com-inventor]

I didn't see Asian bashing. I have personally danced with all three of them and taken classes from all three of them. Your interpretation is just that - one interpretation. Harwood loves to be playful in a way that could be viewed as confrontational. I see him confronting Chung playfully. I know that Chung and Harwood have a great deal of respect for each other. I do not see any Asian bashing going on - rather I think that what you see are different styles. Ray is very laid back and passive. Andrew likes to get in and "poke around." Andrew was very "hard" on his students. But that was also a welcomed challenge and pressure to grow - at least that is how I took it. Ray is kind of the opposite. Quite soft spoken and he teaches from that soft place as well. I can see from their expressions that each is having fun with the other. Notice that Ray gets his moves on Andrew as well.