Observations

Breakdance – the current rage in young Vietnam. Members of the group "Big Toe" from Hanoi show how modern hip hop dance can be a medium for storytelling. In Berlin the young B-Boys performed a new version of their breakdance theatre piece Nhiều Mặt (Faces).

The true face of Vietnam is often hard to recognise at first. Beyond the hectic pace on the streets, the people themselves exhibit Confucian restraint. What masks are worn in Vietnamese society and what faces hide behind them – this is the subject explored by the nine members of Vietnamese hip hop group Big Toe. They worked through their impressions in the 2008 dance theatre performance Nhiều Mặt (Faces) with Franco-German choreography duo Raphael Hillebrand and Sébastien Ramirez as part of a collaborative project by Goethe Institute Vietnam and L’Espace CCF Hanoi. Following the enthusiastic reception of the dancers’ new version of Nhiều Mặt in Vietnam and France this year, the piece was performed in Berlin.

The tensions of everyday life

Performing to a large audience at the Hebbel am Ufer Theatre, the nine dancers came on stage to the traditional sounds of musicians Hoang Thi Thanh Hoa and Ha Dinh Huy. The dancers first hid their faces behind mysterious looking masks before gradually slipping into different identities through a mix of acting and breakdance. On display were tableaus of life’s daily tensions: love and hate, conflict, jealousy, ignorance and tolerance. One moment features Lai Thi Sao Mai – the only female dancer in the ranks of the nine breakdancers. She is torn about what to do. Should she keep dancing with the B-Boys, or wow them by strutting around in high heels? After a few ups and downs and jealous confrontations, she finally finds happiness in love with one of her dance partners.

Contrasting images of society

In the park a young man meets an old man with a cane. The old man (Vu Tung Phuong) has little sympathy for the technology-dominated lifestyle of young people. After an argument, he faces off with a robot (Ho Hai Long) in a popping battle, a type of dance in which mechanical movements are imitated through controlled muscle contraction. Suddenly the folk music of Đàn bầu, T'rung and percussion segues into a beatbox version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’, sung by a lone Nguyen Minh Kien, much to the audience’s delight.

Masters in the art of portraying social contrasts, the group deftly handles contradictions, harmonizing the heavy base beat of hip hop with folk songs. The many breakdance elements give Nhiều Mặt a thrilling dynamic. There are back spins, head spins, windmills – as if everything is revolving. Influences from Martial Arts Tricking also shape the often energetic and artistic scenes. This is a technique that combines martial arts movements with conventional B-Boying and is also a passionate interest of the choreographer Raphael Hillebrand. The song interlude from Nguyen Viet Thanh, founding member and head of Big Toe Crew, is a well-timed break from the action. He croons a Vietnamese love song at the top of his lungs and doesn’t shy away from doing a soft Lionel Richie interpretation. Somewhat kitsch – but that is also one of the many faces of Vietnam.

At the end of an almost hour-long performance, the nine young dancers reap well-deserved applause before again disappearing behind their masks. Through the innovative use of breakdance, the performance has succeeded in creating a dialogue between modernity and tradition and in painting a portrait of the multifaceted Vietnam.