Lubricated dancersperform with elemental passion

Taipei Dance Circle (光環舞集) must be the only dance group in Taiwan that built its reputation on baby oil. Since the early 1990s, they have used the lubricant to smooth the movements of semi-naked dancers, making them slither across equally lubricated floors barely in control of their movements. Such slipperiness helps express the primitive and sometimes chaotic state of humanity before civilization which is the theme of many of the group's works.

After abandoning the use of baby oil for just once in the troupe's performance Sight and Sound earlier this year, Liou Shaw-lu (劉紹爐), group choreographer, is bringing the generously lubricated Flow (流轉) to the stage tonight at Taipei's Novel Hall before the group slithers down south to perform in Taichung and Hsihchu.

With this project, Liu reunites with his old friend Lee Tai-hsiang (李泰祥), one of Taiwan's most famous crossover composers, whom he has known since his days as one of the founding members of Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集), Taiwan's most famous dance troupe.

For the past two decades, the prolific Aboriginal musician has honed his unique style of using classical techniques and instruments to make new arrangements of popular music and folk songs, creating a wild range of scores from film soundtracks and experimental music to large-format oratorios. His characteristic pan-Asian modern compositions won him many Golden Melody Awards.

For Flow, Lee has made new arrangements of five of his pieces to accompany the five dances, meant as physical expressions of Hinduism's five elements. Adding a Taoist twist, the elements, earth, water, wind, space and fire, either beget or limit each other, leading to a cycle of transformation.

In the dance titled Fire, eight dancers perform to hypnotizing percussion music under a flaming red stage light. As the tempo gets hotter and hotter, separate dancers begin to form a circle in which they crouch and groan, fiery light reflecting off their oiled skin, as if in a trance during an esoteric ritual. Like the rest of the performance, it's a captivating piece that is executed with gusto.

Flow will be performed at Novel Hall at 7:30pm today and tomorrow. It will move to Taichung on Nov. 15 and then to Hsihchu on Nov. 27. Tickets are available at Acer ticketing outlets. More information can be obtained by calling the group at (02) 8972-0061. -- Vico Lee