Two very different dance programs at the National Theater this weekend encapsulate the diversity of the modern dance world in Taipei, not only in terms of size and structure but in approach and focus. M Dans, a five-man troupe, will be performing a mixed program, Stairs (樓梯) in the Experimental Theater, while in the main theater the Legend Lin Dance Theater (無垢舞蹈劇場) is staging a revival of its visually stunning, internationally acclaimed Mirrors de Vie (Mirrors of Life).
Chen Wu-kang (陳武康), the founder of M Dans, is a prime example of the kind of talented young dancer that Taiwan has been producing for the last two decades or so. Having received his basic training here, he went abroad to study more — and gain fame with a New York-based company.
Chen has garnered excellent reviews dancing with Eliot Feld’s companies in New York, both with Ballet Tech and the Mandance Project. He has been bouncing back and forth between Taipei and his work with Feld in New York for about five years.
PHOTO COURTESY OF M DANS
M Dans was founded about two years ago because Chen and a former schoolmate wanted to work together — with the lofty ambition of changing the dance environment in Taiwan. He said he didn’t set out to create an all-male troupe, they just came up with a list of dancers that they wanted to work with.
“We wanted to do something completely different. We didn’t want to have just men but we couldn’t find any women in Taiwan that we like [to dance with] right now,” Chen said in a telephone interview.
Each of the dancers has also choreographed a piece for this weekend’s show, beginning with Chen’s 10-minute piece Ritual Memory, a stark, melancholy dance to a haunting piano score, where the action on stage is mirrored from three different angles in a black and white film projected onto three large screens overhead.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LEGEND LIN DANCE THEATER
The other dances on the program are Object, A Journey, Spiral, Vision and then, as Chen said “for dessert there is Feld’s A Stair Dance.
When asked why they chose A Stair Dance, Chen said it encapsulates what he likes about dance and about Feld’s choreography.
“It’s so pure, so basic, the elements, the rhythm, the shape. It’s just five men stepping up and down the stairs,” he said.
It’s a little more complex than that. The American choreographer is known for his passion for music and fascination with creating shapes using time and space.
For A Stair Dance, which was created as a tribute to the late tap dancer and actor Gregory Hines, Feld turned to one of his favorite composers, Steve Reich and his composition Tokyo, Vermont Counterpoint.
It’s fun, its lighthearted and it’s liberating. It also takes a lot of skill, and a lot of sweat.
M Dans has obviously struck a chord with Taipei dance fans. If you don’t already have a ticket, you are out of luck.
“It’s great,” Chen said. “We sold out about two weeks ago. People have been asking us to add another performance but we decided not too — we’re too tired.”
It’s going to be a good weekend for the much larger company upstairs in the main theater as well. The 11-year old Legend Lin troupe has almost sold out its run as well.
Legend Lin, founded and directed by choreographer Lin Li-chen (林麗珍), is a modern-dance troupe that has gained international acclaim for works based upon or inspired by Taiwanese folk traditions. It is staging a revival of the work that first brought it fame, the beautiful Mirrors de Vie, which examines Taoist rituals, especially the sacrificial feasts of the Ghost Festival, and the relations between both man and his environment and between men and women. The goddess Matsu leads the spirits of the past and present as the doorway opens between this world and the world of the dead.
The National Theater has been transformed into a giant temple, the stage apron lit by scores of small candles flickering in small red glasses. Mirrors begins slowly, quietly, with a drummer slowly walking across the apron to light the giant candle in the middle of all the smaller ones. A second drummer enters a few minutes later, and after settling himself down, the two softly begin to play lightly on their drums.
From that soft beginning, Mirrors moves from one segment to the next, changing in pitch and intensity, as slow, stately movements are replaced by grotesque contortions or flashes of speed.
Lin takes the audience on a gripping, surrealistic journey, peopled with almost nightmarish creatures, goddesses and acolytes, that leaves audiences with a memory that they will treasure — and reflect upon — for years to come.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built