The last time choreographer Lin Wen-chung (林文中) was involved in a show at Taipei’s Metropolitan Hall was in 2009, when he contributed Reflections in a Lake (湖映) to the “Dancing Portrait of Taiwan” show by the Taipei Folk Dance Theatre (台北民族舞團) founded by his mother, Tsai Li-hua (蔡麗華).
This weekend he is back with this own company, the eight-year-old WCdance (林文中舞團), and his newest work, Panta Rhei (流變), for two shows.
While Lin is known for his eclectic taste in music and sources of inspiration — perhaps the influence of the seven years he spent with the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in New York — one has to ask why he chose a Greek term as a title.
Photo courtesy of Chen You-wei
“I just read a lot Greek philosophy and I like it, like the idea that nothing is certain in this world, everything changes,” Lin said in a telephone interview on Monday night.
The name means “everything circulates,” which is fitting, since, like his 13th Taishin Arts Award-winning work Long River (長河) in 2014, it centers on hydrodynamics.
“For me, Long River is a classical approach to water bodies, Panta Rhei is a modern version of water bodies,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Chen You-wei
Asked what it was about water that inspires him — given that Panta Rhei is now the fourth work about water he has done in Taiwan, starting with Reflections in a Lake and then 2012’s Small River (水淌河小) — Lin laughed.
“I want to make the joints of bodies more fluid. Like with martial arts [techniques], people just imitate some forms, but that is not enough for me,” he said.
He said Long River was created when he was just a year into researching joint fluidity, while Panta Rhei will give audiences a chance to see how much progress he and his company have made.
Photo courtesy of Chen You-wei
“Now we have three years of research, we can go deeper, we can use all the joints of the body more efficiently, give them more range,” he said.
For the 70-minute work, which is set on eight dancers, Lin turned to two of the team who worked on last year’s Aerodynamics (空氣動力學): lighting designer Song Yong-hong (宋永鴻), who also worked on Lin’s Small End (小.結) in 2013, and multi-media artist Ethan Wang (王奕盛), whose work for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) helped make 2013’s Rice (稻禾) and 2014’s White Water (白水) such visual feasts.
For the stage design he tapped new media artist/photographer and Taipei Art Award-winner Wu Chi-tsung (吳季璁), while the costumes were designed by Yang Yu-teh (楊妤德).
Photo courtesy of Chen You-wei
However, his choice of composer Lin Fangyi (林芳宜), is a departure for him.
“I have always used classical music, romantic music, so I thought I should try something different. I am interested in learning more about modern music, especially Taiwanese modern composers,” Lin Wen-chung said.
Asked if this weekend’s show at the Metropolitan — the third straight year he had done a large stage production — meant he would only focus on bigger pieces, Lin said no, saying the company will do a show at a 70-seat theater in December.
However, bigger stages do mean bigger risks, especially when there is not a promoter such as the National Theater Concert Hall backing you.
“It’s [Panta Rhei] my first independent theater production, so I feel very exulted, very nervous, but sometimes nervous is good,” Lin Wen-chung said.
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