For Yao Shu-fen (姚淑芬), inspiration comes from unusual places. The choreographer and director of Century Contemporary Dance Company (世紀當代舞團) found herself in Newcastle in 2004 on an exchange program funded by the British Council and the Taiwan Arts Council with the purpose of creating a dance performance piece. But after a few months, she had yet to come up with an idea.
That is until one Saturday afternoon she had an opportunity to witness Black and White Day, a ritual where men and women get dressed in these colors and march through Newcastle to St. James Stadium where they watch an afternoon of football.
"I was immediately inspired by the fans and the players and the coaches and the reason why everyone was dressed in these colors," said Yao, who has adapted the symbolism of the colors in a performance called I Get a Kick Out of You.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CENTURY CONTEMPORARY DANCE COMPANY
Originally staged at the NewcastleGateshead International Dance Festival in 2006, the 30-minute experimental dance piece has been expanded to an hour for its Taipei debut.
A combination of dance, spoken word, singing and video projection, I Get a Kick Out of You is based on Yao's experiences living in the English city and a series of interviews given by the choreographer from which she distilled the plot of the performance.
Yao cites the story of an Englishman she met and the story he told her as representative of how football has a powerful effect on the people of Newcastle.
"When he was growing up he recalled his mother always asking his father, 'do you love me or do you love football?'" she said. This tension between the sport and family is one many expats from England can attest to.
"But they came up with an agreement that Saturday they go to football and Sunday is family day. And so in the end you have to ask yourself what is more important? Football or family."
It's not the kind of question people in Taipei would probably ask themselves but Yao hopes to move beyond that boundary by getting the audience involved in the piece.
"We will split the audience into two teams with Newcastle on one side and Taipei on the other," she said, adding: "We will also invite [some members of] audience to come on stage."
By breaking the audience down into two camps Yao hopes to recreate the excitement fans of football feel when cheering for their favorite team.
During the performance, the men are dressed in white — symbolizing their marriage to football — while the female actors are dressed in black.
Known as "football widows" the color of mourning symbolizes how these women have "lost" their husbands or boyfriends to the sport.
To give it a more international feel, Yao has invited choreographer Helen Williams — who hails from Newcastle — to work on the dance routines and expats Tricia and Dave Habberjam, who were serendipitously commandeered to waltz in the performance because of their elderly European appearance — a flourish that adds a touch of romance to the work.
The performance is in both Chinese and English.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50