Terpsichore must have declared October to be dance month. The National Theater Concert Hall (NTCH) is launching its Dance in Autumn series next weekend, the Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company (稻草舞團) performs at the Experimental Theater this weekend, the Taipei Dance Circle (光環舞集) premiers a new production on Oct. 16, the Taipei Folk Dance Theater (台北民族舞團) begins a three-city tour on Oct. 23 — the list just goes on and on and that’s just Taipei.
Dance in Autumn features three Taiwanese contemporary companies and two foreign troupes making their Taipei debuts. The programs should appeal to both the general public and dance fans alike, although one show is listed as not suitable for children.
The series starts with the Batsheva Dance Company from Israel in the main theater and dance professor and Taipei Crossover Dance Company (台北越界舞團) director Ho Hsiao-mei’s (何曉玫) new troupe, Meimage Dance
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHUNKY DANCE
(玫舞擊), in the Experimental Theater’s black box.
The 46-year-old Batsheva’s status in Israel is akin to that of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) in Taiwan — widely embraced at home and one of the nation’s most popular cultural exports. Artistic director Ohad Naharin started his own dance training with the company in 1974 before moving to New York to study and perform with Martha Graham, building a career in the US and Europe with his own troupe before returning home to become Batsheva’s artistic director in 1990.
Batsheva’s three-show run of Naharin’s Deca Dance 2010 begins today. The 90-minute (with intermission) Deca showcases the technique that Naharin has developed, known as “Gaga,” through a sampling of seven works he created between 1992 and 2008. Gaga stresses slow movement through space while the body — or parts of it — move quickly. This distinctive language is matched by an equally unique score that ranges from synthesized classical music (Vivaldi) to pop, to the spoken word and Hebrew songs.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LIU CHEN-HSIANG
Among the Batsheva dancers will be 25-year-old Lee Chen-wei (李貞葳), who joined the junior troupe — Batsheva Ensemble — a year ago and was recently promoted to the main company. [An interview with Lee will appear in Thursday’s edition of the Taipei Times on Page 14.]
Ho’s new work, Woo! Barbie (Woo!芭比), is, like Deca Dance 2010, a retrospective of earlier pieces. The performance explores Taiwanese cultural images, loneliness and female icons that range from betel nut beauties to Barbie dolls.
The men of Horse (驫舞劇場) return to the Experimental Theater on Oct. 21 for five performances of I (我). A common theme to the all-male group’s work is the search for identity and life’s transitions.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY
Asked to explain the theme of I in 25 words or less, artistic director Chen Wu-kang (陳武康) said he couldn’t. He did say, however, that “you can’t quite recognize who these people are, but at the same time you know you have met them before. I is a way of learning to understand each other and a chance to understand how ‘I’ became ‘me.’”
After a week’s break, Dance in Autumn picks up again on Nov. 6, with Chunky Move from Melbourne. The troupe’s 60-minute dance-video-laser production Mortal Engine comes with a warning that it is not for the fainthearted — the lasers and pulsating strobe lights effects are intense and the music is loud — nor is it suitable for children because of partial nudity.
Artistic director Gideon Obarzanek founded Chunky Move in 1995 and has honed a reputation for genre-defying work. In Mortal Engine, he examines the connections and disconnects of modern relationships and the conflicts arising from mortality, sexuality and desire.
National Theater audiences have seen similar multimedia mixes of choreography and computer technology in the work of Lloyd Newson of DV8 and Austrian Klaus Obermaier, but Obarzanek really blurs the lines between human bodies and images, often in nightmare-inspiring ways, such as amorphous masses that spread across the floor, overwhelming and obscuring the dancers.
Much less threatening black shapes will be floating across the stage when Cloud Gate premieres Lin Hwai-min’s (林懷民) new work, Water Stains on the Wall, on Nov. 19. The shapes may be friendlier, but Lin has really challenged his dancers by placing them on a steeply raked stage that gives new meaning to the term “finding your center of gravity.”
Before that, however, the troupe will perform one of its signature pieces, Songs of the Wanderers, over five days, starting on Nov. 10. Songs was an immediate hit when it premiered in 1995 if for no other reason than the 3,500kg of rice that streams from the rafters — for the entire 90-minute show — onto the bald head of the dancer portraying a Buddhist monk. For fans who have been watching the video/DVD ever since, Lin said he has tinkered a bit to give the piece a new look.
The NTCH is offering a series subscription discount. If you buy tickets to each of the six shows, you can get a 25 percent discount, but you have to buy the same number of tickets for each show.
Dance in Autumn series:
At the National Theater (國家戲劇院), 21-1, Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號)
Batsheva Dance Company, Deca Dance 2010, Oct. 15 and Oct. 16 at 7:30pm, and Oct. 17 at 2:30pm. Admission: Tickets are NT$500 to NT$2,500
Chunky Move, Mortal Engine, Nov. 6 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, Nov. 7 at 7:30pm. Admission: Tickets are NT$500 to NT$2,500
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Songs of the Wanderers, Nov. 10 to Nov. 13 at 7:45pm and Oct. 14 at 2:45pm. Admission: Tickets are NT$400 to NT$2,000
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Water Stains on the Wall, Nov. 19, Nov. 20 and Nov. 22 to Nov. 27 at 7:45pm, Nov. 21 and Nov. 28 at 2:45pm. Admission: Tickets are NT$400 to NT$2,000
At the Experimental Theater (國家戲劇院實驗劇場)
Meimage Dance, Woo! Barbie, Oct. 15 and Oct. 16 at 7:30pm, Oct. 16 and Oct. 17 at 2:30pm. Admission: Tickets are NT$500
Horse, I, Oct. 21 to Oct. 23 at 7:30pm and Oct. 22 and 23 at 2:30pm. Admission: Tickets are NT$500
Tickets for all the above shows are available at NTCH box offices, www.artsticket.com.tw and ibon and Life-ET kiosks
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