On the Novel Hall stage circled by eight wooden pillars, a tall, slim figure in a dark blue trench coat makes a thorough dissection of the dancer's movements. Cloud Gate choreographer Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) made a sound of admiration and murmured, "It realizes the greatest possibility of art."
The dancer was Cesc Gelabert, a Catalonian choreographer/dancer who brings his most impressive solo performances Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I and II to start the sixth "Novel Dance" (
Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I and II is Gelabert's reconstruction of a minimalist and modernist dance created by the legendary German choreographer Gerhard Bohner in 1989, three years before he died of AIDS-related complications.
Gelabert was in the audience when Bohner performed the masterpiece that summed up his life-long artistic visions. He was utterly moved and vowed to preserve the solo for the international dance circle.
In Gelabert's words, Bohner made this solo a synthesis of two key movements: expressionism and the Bauhaus, which embrace modernist simplicity, rationality and utility in art.
Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I can be divided into two parts. The first section involves the artist's exploration of space with his body. The second part presents an "anatomy of the human condition," as the artist puts it. It's a journey of consciousness through the whole body -- from the skull, shoulders, chest, arms and toes -- to explore the structural possibilities of movement.
The minimalist stage design of sculptors Vera Rohm and Robert Schad puts the dancers in the foreground, accompanied by Johann Sebastien Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The music is performed live by Heidrun Holtmann in Im (Goldenen) Schnitt II, the same pianist who accompanied Bohner when he danced the piece.
Gelabert said such a performance is more demanding and difficult than a flashy spectacle.
"Each joint and muscle needs to be in precise control. Each move needs to be absolutely clear. Your whole body needs to be in harmony with the precision of Bach's music."
"The dance is about concentration, precision and silence, in a way. I am in front of the audience with my whole life behind me. It requires the same quiet concentration from the audience. I want the audience [members] to be in contact with their own emotions and imagination," Gelabert said.
Lin, the art director of the Novel Dance series, had another point about Gelabert's brutally honest and dignified performances.
"It's a dance of the king. No words can describe its elegance and grandness. You have to see it yourself and be confrontational with the dance in a way that is equivalent to Bach's music."
Oyster by the Inbal Pinto Dance Company offers a change of mood, from solemnness to fantastic delight. Hailed as one of the rising stars of the international dance circle, Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto masterfully combines elements of ballet, mime, acrobatics and contemporary dance to create a surrealistic circus-like vaudeville.
All the performers appear like white-faced manikins or curious creatures that seem to come out of the whimsical world of Salvador Dali. In the theater of child-like innocence created by co-director Avshalom Pollak, the audience is invited to join the ballerinas, flying acrobats, two-headed giants and marionettes to realize their wildest dreams.
Oyster is a visually dazzling show that will be enjoyed by audience of all ages.
Internationally renowned choreographer, Josef Nadj, will conclude the dance series with his visionary Comedia tempio, a theater/dance piece inspired by the life and works of Hungarian writer and psychiatrist and composer Geza Csath, who died aged 32, at the turn of the 20th century.
Born in Vojvodina, in the former Yugoslavia, Nadj moved to France in the 1980s to study contemporary dance, martial arts and classical mime and founded his own dance company, Theater Jel, soon after.
The main body of his works draws inspiration from the familiar landscape of his native village, and are heavily influenced by his favorite authors such as Franz Kafka, Raymond Rousse, Bruno Schulz and Geza Csath.
In Comedia tempio, the world is a confining domestic interior, in which men in frock coats and bowler hats and women in elegant gowns wander through the set -- from a maze to a secret trapdoor to another cubbyhole.
The performers act like lunatics, walking in their sleep, trying to cling to a world that is on the verge of collapse. They are devoid of expressions and successfully create a world of sinister comic nightmare, as evoked by Kafka.
Performance notes
What: Novel Dance 2005 (新舞風)
Where: Novel Hall
(新舞台), 3-1, Songshou Rd, Taipei (台北市松壽路3-1號)
When: Tonight and tomorrow at 8pm; Sunday at 3pm for Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I and II. Oct. 14 and 15 at 8pm; Oct. 16 at 3pm for Oyster ; Oct. 21 and 22 at 8pm; Oct 23. at 3pm for Comedia tempio
Tickets: NT$500 to NT$1,800, through ERA ticketing, or call (02) 2723 7953
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and