Dancing With 37 Arts (37ARTS 舞者紀事), a documentary by Lee Chien-chang (李建常) and Blook Tseng (曾筱竹), is a riveting look at one of the best dancers Taiwan has ever produced, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and Martha Graham Dance Company alumnus Sheu Fang-yi (許芳宜), as she embarks upon the next stage of her career.
The camera follows Sheu and her partner, choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava (布拉瑞揚), to New York City in the summer of 2007 to take up a two-month residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center on 37th Street in Manhattan, and then back to Taiwan as they rehearse for the production that will launch their revived company, LAFA & Artists, in January this year.
Sheu was the first Asian artist, and the first dancer, to be awarded a residency at the Baryshnikov center. She invited Bula, theater director Lee, gymnast Huang Ming-cheng (黃明正) and dancer Chiang Pau-shu (江保樹) to join her. For Sheu and Bula, the New York sojourn was a chance to work on pieces for the company’s debut. But it was also two months of almost 24-hour togetherness that would strain their personal and professional relationship.
The film mixes segments of the January performances — including a lovely shot in the opening montage of Sheu perched like a butterfly on the edge of a table in Bula’s The Single Room, arms and legs gently moving in the air — with rehearsals and private moments in New York and in Taipei. Most of the scenes center around the production of Bula’s new piece, 37 Arts.
Lee and Tseng provide a first-hand look at the struggles of a small company: the star who has to be dancer, mother hen, publicist and fund-raiser all in one; the hard-pushing choreographer who pitches in backstage to sew a costume onto a dancer; young performers striving to meet professional standards; dancers who perform despite illness and injuries; and the last-minute crises that threaten to derail the opening night.
Dancing With 37 Arts offers a rare glimpse into the world of dancers, and into the life of a woman whose dedication and drive are legendary, a woman who says she only feels relaxed and at home on stage. It’s a film that should be in the library of every performing arts and dance school in the world.
The film will be shown tonight at 7pm and on Oct. 25 at 10pm.
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
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
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