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Festival walks the tightrope of artistic fusion

by Ian Bartholomew
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Sep 28, 2007, Page 13

A member of Comagnie Transe Express takes to the air in Mobile Homme. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TAIPEI ARTS FESTIVAL

This Sunday, 40m above the flagstones of the Taipei Zhongshan Hall plaza, Compagnie Transe Express will perform their high-wire music and acrobatics to open the Ninth Taipei Arts Festival (2007第九屆台北藝術節). Their feats of daring and skill seem a fitting prelude to a selection of local and international performances spanning modern and traditional art, Western and Asian forms, contemporary innovations and age-old foundations. These performances will attempt to form something that is not just new, but which can win the hearts of audiences as well.

In the festival's opening performance, Compagnie Transe Express will perform as a life-sized human mobile hanging above the plaza.

Drawing inspiration from the drummers and jesters who performed for crowds during festivals in the Middle Ages, the group aims to achieve what it calls "intervention theater": the goal is to make itself part of the environment, forcing a meeting with the audience. In the work Mobile Homme, which they will be presenting at 2pm and 7:30pm on Sunday, their antics will be monumental as they take place on a massive mobile suspended above the crowd.

Other performances take place in more conventional theatrical settings, but are not necessarily less fraught with risk. Performers, straddling multiple traditions and disciplines, walk the tightrope between bold innovation and failure.

Setting the tone will be the world premiere of Contemporary Legend Theater's (當代傳奇) 108 Heroes - Tales From the Water Margin (水滸108), with its mixture of Beijing opera, hip-hop and pop builds a new interpretation of a Chinese classic by Chang Ta-chun (張大春), one of Taiwan's foremost novelists and literary critics. Combining contemporary dance, popular entertainment and fashion into something not clearly defined, former choreographer and senior dancer with the Nuremberg Dance Theater, Sun Shang-chi (孫尚綺) premiers Walk Faster (走快一點，型男！) to launch his recently-created company Shangchi Move Theater (崎動力劇場).

A number of international acts will also perform in the festival. Notable among these is the Yohangza Company from South Korea, whose interpretation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was the toast of the Edinburgh Festival. It is also earned the honor of being the first Asian theater group to have been invited to perform Shakespeare at the Barbican Theater in London.

While tickets must be purchased for these major shows, there will be many free performances as well, starting off with Mobile Homme on Sunday. Other groups performing gratis include the Gypsies of Rajasthan, Forum Music Ensemble (十方樂集), Wind Dance Theater (風之舞形舞團), and Han Tang Yuefu Ensemble (漢唐樂府), in a series of concerts at Da-an Forest Park (大安森林公園).

To back up the performances, seminars will be held at various universities to explore aspects of the shows. A number of master classes with foreign artists have also been organized.

"We understand that this fusion of art is not always easy to grasp, and this is why we also aim to make the festival an educational experience," festival organizer Li Li-heng (李立亨) said. "It is intended to inspire local artists, as well as showcase established ones."

Taipei Times will be previewing major performances as they come up. For a full list of events, see the festival's Web site at www.tpeart.org.tw (mostly in Chinese, but with some bilingual elements.) Tickets and additional performance information can be found at www.artsticket.com.tw.
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