Hearing-impaired dancers explore mankind, memory

A contemporary dance featuring hearing impaired dancers from the Together Higher dance troupe will perform the debut of Sigh Memory in Hanoi on Dec. 18.
A contemporary dance featuring hearing impaired dancers from the Together Higher dance troupe will perform the debut of Sigh Memory in Hanoi on Dec. 18.

Sigh Memory tells the story about man and memory. It begins with a man looking into his past to confirm he exists in the present. But the memory he finds does not belong to him. It has a life of its own, and it doesn’t need him.

The show was put together by Le Vu Long, hailed as Vietnam’s first independent contemporary choreographer. In 2002 he established the dance company Together Higher for the deaf people.

In 2007, he became director of the UNESCO centre for cultural and sport development to support and organise cultural and sporting activities. Long’s works have been presented in Japan, Italy, the US, Thailand and Cambodia.

The Together Higher group has also participated in several art festivals including the Hue, Bangkok, and Constate Combiamento; and conducted extensive workshop and training programmes and fund-raising through their performances.

Together Higher uses the natural movement of the body to investigate the interaction between people. By exploring the rhythm of the body, Together Higher forges a choreographic world full of emotional range and power that examines the miracle of human potential.

Funded by the Ford Foundation and the Culture Exchange Development Fund of Denmark, the Sigh Memory is a result of a four-month project.

“Eight workshops were held over a weekend with a view to bring the art of contemporary dance to the public,” said Luu Thu Lan, co-founder of Together Higher.

Training courses were also organised with the participation of different groups of audiences.


The one hour-dance will be performed by 10 amateur dancers including six males and four females./.

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