What better way to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival, that yearly celebration of the ripeness of the moon, than to spend it inside a theater watching a handful of dancers do things that ordinary mortals can only dream of? The folks of the Taipei Crossover Dance Theater (台北越界舞團) have at least opted for an autumn-themed program for their performances tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon, and the Sunday matinee will allow dance-lovers to feast themselves on choreographer Zhang Xiao-xiong’s (張曉雄) latest work and still be able to spend the Moon Festival outdoors in the evening.
Taipei Crossover Dance Theater was founded in 1994 by four dancers from the first generation of Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集): the late Lo Man-fei (羅曼菲) Cheng Shu-gi (鄭淑姬), Yeh Tai-chu (葉台竹) and Wu Su-chun (吳素君), plus stage/lighting designer, Lin Keh-hua (林克華).
The dancers wanted a platform to continue dancing as they entered their 40s and to nurture their choreographic skills, while all five were interested in pushing the boundaries of modern dance theater and staging.
The founders have now turned the dancing duties over to a younger generation, but both the dancing and the choreography remain first rate.
While Zhang, who danced with the Australian Dance Theater and Dance Canberra, was not one of the founders of Crossover, the company turned to him first as a guest choreographer. He now serves as artistic director. He has provided works that challenge both the dancers and audiences and this weekend’s program offer a similar promise.
The program features Zhang’s newest work The Autumn Song (秋歌) and a piece he created two years ago for an international dance conference in Hong Kong, The Floating Life (浮生).
The Autumn Song is an older person’s reflection on his teenage years, the happy memories of a time shared with someone you loved, he said in a telephone interview.
“The piece comes from inside, rather than talking about the environment, external factors,” he said.
The Floating Life is much darker, though it also comes from Zhang’s memories.
“The piece is very heavy, … (it is) about people who could not choose the time and environment in which they lived, but who had the courage to face what they had to and the pride to do so.”
“I am so proud of my dancers,” he said. “They are so beautiful, they have really matured with the piece.”
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