Walk like a dinosaur

In 2012, Lightwire Theater, a light-up puppet group act, received a standing ovation for its Dinosaurs With Light Sabers performance on NBC's hit show America's Got Talent. Glowing dinosaurs roared at the crowd amid colorful dancing flowers.

Now the act is coming to China, where the group will perform a kid-friendly show, Darwin the Dinosaur, and offer workshops on their art. Lightwire Theater will perform at Tsinghua University on May 16 and 17 in Beijing and at the National Center for the Performing Arts on June 1 and 2.

"Darwin, our green dinosaur, was one of the first characters we built," says Ian Carney, one of the founders of Lightwire Theater and a former ballet dancer from New Orleans. "My wife Eleanor and I wrote the story, which is about a magical professor who builds a dinosaur and gives him a heart. In the story Darwin discovers the true meaning of love. We actually made the show without a specific audience in mind. We just made something we liked."

"We love doing workshops because it is the only time we get to interact with the audience," says Eleanor Carney, also a former ballet dancer. "We show them a little bit about how we work. We ask for those who wish to participate to join us. We are able to give them a real behind-the-scenes look at how everything works.

"We really focus on making shows for the entire family. Our goal is to have mom and dad laughing with the kids."

The two have been dancing together since 1996, when they joined Montgomery Ballet, playing roles in Giselle, Cinderella and The Nutcracker. They share a great passion for dance and telling stories through movement.

A few years ago, Ian Carney began performing with dancer Corbin Popp in the Broadway musical Movin' Out. Popp introduced the Carneys to electroluminescent wire, a thin copper wire surrounded by a layer of phosphor that glows when a current is applied to it.

The trio went on to found Lightwire Theater, blending art and science. "It's not just a dance show or a puppet show. It's a combination of dance and puppetry wrapped up in a technology that offers something visually exciting to watch," Ian Carney says.

In the beginning, they built the creatures during the day and then took the characters out at night to Central Park near their house. "We were once stopped by the police for being in the park. But when we lit up the creatures, they were so impressed that they let us stay," Ian Carney says.

Popp says the biggest difficulty is that the wires are not designed to bend repeatedly, so they break if they are twisted too much. Popp and the Carneys spent years working with the wires to create costumes that allow full movement by the dancers.

The dancers picked up the choreography quickly, but learning how to control the switches for the wires on the costumes while dancing takes time, Popp says.

In 2007, they premiered Darwin the Dinosaur. Popp says they were nervous because the technology was still new. "We were afraid that the costumes would fail. But the audiences' reception was overwhelming," Popp recalls.

Ian Carney says they initially hesitated to perform on America's Got Talent because of the time limit. "Telling the story in 90 seconds is extremely challenging. Every second counts, and your ideas have to be very clear. It was quite an artistic push for us," he says. "But after our first response, we knew that we had made the right decision."

On the heels of Darwin the Dinosaur, Lightwire Theater has created three more shows, The Ugly Duckling, Lightwire the Show and A Very Electric Christmas, and are now touring around the world.

"We are able to transport the show in a large trailer. The dimensional weight is far greater than the actual weight in kilos," says Ian Carney. "Besides touring to different countries, we would ultimately like to have a sit-down show in a theme park or Las Vegas."

IF YOU GO

7:30 pm, May 16-17. Arts and Education Center for Performing Arts, inside Tsinghua University, 30 Shuangqing Lu (Road), Haidian district, Beijing. 010-6278-8104.

2:30 pm and 7:30 pm, June 1; 2:30 pm, June 2. National Center for the Performing Arts, 2 West Chang'an Avenue, Xicheng district, Beijing. 010-6655-0000.

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn