This weekend sees the second program in the National Theater Concert Hall’s New Idea Dance series, with Yang Wei-chen’s (楊維真) intriguingly titled The Hotel Bubbles (泡泡旅社).
This series, now in its 10th year, grouped this year’s shows under the theme “Who Is She?” and feature the work of three young(ish) Taiwanese dancer/choreographers: Yang, Chen Yun-ju (陳韻如) and Lai Tsui-shuang (賴翠霜). In addition to being all women, the three have all studied and/or worked abroad for many years.
Yang studied at the Amsterdam School of the Arts before moving to France to work with the contemporary dance company CIE Eolipile, founded by fellow Taiwanese Lin Yuan-shang (林原上). She is also the artistic director of her own Shilin-based troupe, Wu-Fa-Biao-Da (舞法表達), which she founded in 2005, and which will be performing in this weekend’s show.
Photo Courtesy of NTCH
Like many contemporary dance choreographers, Yang has developed a fusion style that blends different performance genres. In her case, she mixes ballet, hip-hop and martial arts.
For someone who has lived and worked in different countries and cultures, it is not surprising that Yang’s inspiration comes from a variety of sources. For The Hotel Bubbles, Yang drew inspiration from the popular Taiwanese Taoist deity Nezha (哪吒), also known as Santaizi (the Third Prince, 三太子) and the hero of French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince.
The Third Prince is considered a playful, even rebellious spirit, and in recent years has become something of a dancing mascot for Taiwan (20 of them drove into the Kaohsiung World Games in 2009 on motorcycles before launching into a dance routine). The Little Prince is a rather serious, but curious young boy who has fallen to Earth from his home asteroid after traveling to different planets in search of a cure for his loneliness.
The commonality is their infinite curiosity and search for the human heart, and in Yang’s production, the two princes link up to help adults find their childlike vision.
Besides an affinity for child icons, Yang appears to have a fondness for bubble metaphors — some of her previous works include Bubbles Airline (泡泡航空公司), Miss Bubble (泡泡小姐) and Bubble W@nderland (泡泡奇慾鏡).
Performing alongside Yang this weekend will be some familiar faces (and bodies): Tian Yi-wei (田懿葳), who has also worked with Chou Shu-yi (周書毅) and Dancers (周先生與舞者們); Lu Da-yan (劉大雁), who works with U-Theatre’s (優人神鼓) gifted young people program; Ke Te-feng (柯德峰), who has made an impression with Ku & Dancers (古舞團); and Lian Jya-jun (連嘉駿).
For the score, Yang turned to Chiang Tao (蔣韜) of the alternative-rock band the Blue Velvets (藍絲絨).
Saturday afternoon’s matinee will be followed by a question-and-answer session with Yang.
After this weekend, audiences will have to wait a month to see the final production in this year’s New Idea Dance series, Lai’s Home Temperature (家‧溫℃), which will be performed from July 26 to July 28 in the Experimental Theater.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located