The Hofesh Shechter Company returns to Taipei this week for a second appearance at the Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA) with Sun, which opens tonight at the National Theater.
The Brighton, England-based troupe arrived from Macau, where they performed on Sunday.
The 41-year-old Israel-born Shechter is a choreographer, percussionist and composer, who in the space of a few short years has developed a reputation for very muscular, politically-minded dances.
Photo Courtesy of Gabriele Zucca
Shechter danced with the Batsheva Dance Company and the Jasmin Vardimon Company, and worked on a variety of dance and theater projects before concentrating on choreography in the early 2000s. In 2008, he formed his own company with Helen Shute and Colette Hansford, who became executive director and general manager respectively.
In 2010, the company debuted his first full-length work, the powerful (and loud) Political Mother, which it brought to Taipei two years later.
Sun, which premiered in October 2013 at the Melbourne Festival, was Shechter’s second full-length work.
Photo Courtesy of Simona Boccedi
The show has drawn mixed reviews from critics but, judging by comments tagged to the trailer and other video clips of the show, has been well-received by audiences.
Best described as a series of vignettes, Sun begins with a few seconds of its ending: The cast, dressed in a mix of white 18th century-style outfits and Pierrot smocks by Christina Cunningham, perform to a snippet of Richard Wagner’s Tannhauser, Arrival of the Guests from Wartburg. The stage then goes dark and the show rewinds to its beginning. Given Shechter’s use of music in a way that belies its title — Irving Berlin’s Let’s Face the Music and Dance, for example, or the hymn Abide With Me — expect the unexpected.
The choreographer has been quoted as saying that Sun is about mankind’s search for the truth.
“It presents something and tells you it’s not the truth, so you keep on seeking for the truth. It presents layers of lies. Hopefully, like Picasso said, through the layers of lies perhaps we get a sense ... of truth at the end.”
However, a sense of pessimism pervades the work, as happy folk dance-tinged movements give way to synchronized marching and beatings. Cardboard sheep menaced by a cardboard wolf are just the beginning of the terrors a chaotic world has to offer.
The show runs almost 75 minutes without intermission, and comes with an audience caution about strobe lighting, loud music and smoke effects.
Among the 15-strong cast of Sun is Chang Chien-ming (張建明), a Taipei National University of the Arts graduate who danced with Cloud Gate 2 (雲門2) and the Bern Ballet before joining the Shechter troupe, where he has worked full-time since 2009.
There will be a post-show discussion of Sun in the theater lobby after Sunday’s matinee.
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