Seeing Riverbed Theatre’s (河床劇團) One-thousand circles for space travel (千圈 旅) is probably the closest one can get to an Alice in Wonderland experience without taking hallucinogens.
There are no rabbit holes to drop into, but to get to your seat you have to walk through a narrow, low-ceilinged tunnel, so everyone scurries half-bent (with one or two knocked foreheads at the entryway), and at one point actress Chung Li-mei (鍾莉美) does slide down a sink — with her feet gracefully sticking up in the air for a couple of extra beats before disappearing.
The complex six-unit set, including the seating area for just 50 people, is a like a magic Japanese wooden puzzle, with rooms that are slid into place or pulled back to reveal a new view.
Photo Courtesy of Zhang Xiaoxiong
I definitely felt that I had traveled to a different world, the interior world of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, but one that only gives glimpses of the troubles that have bedeviled her all her life.
Sitting in the front row, I had the chance to appreciate the fine touches in the production: the two women dressed like twins in the opening scene, until you realize that one is wearing her white slip dress inside out, seams showing; the seamless smoothness of the sets shift; the pops of color in the fruit props; the women’s slow, measured movements.
Like many other Riverbed productions, there was no text; the images created by the sets, the lighting and the actresses tell the story of One-thousand circles for space travel. It is a stunning story, although — as usual — some of the images were also disturbing, albeit in a beautiful way.
Photo Courtesy of Zhang Xiaoxiong
What I took away from the theater was an admiration for the incredible body control several of the performers needed for their roles, which required them to drape themselves in awkward positions and then hold them for several minutes.
That, and one of Lewis Carol’s lines from Alice in Wonderland: “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”
There are still some tickets left for this weekend’s shows, and One-thousand circles for space travel is definitely worth battling the weekend traffic in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) to see.
Photo Courtesy of Zhang Xiaoxiong
A NIGHT FOR MEN
Fly High (輕˙狂) was the title of the Taipei National University of the Arts’ Dance Department annual Winter Dance Concert and the students on Saturday night at the school’s Dance Theater were definitely soaring.
It was an exceptionally strong program, with four demanding works that tested the students’ skills in very disparate techniques.
That being said it was a night for the men, which I had not anticipated, given the dance department was given a rare nod to the classical ballet canon with an excerpt from Act II of Giselle, which opened the program.
The young women who were the Willis did well, and Huang Yu-mien (黃渝棉) as Giselle had a beautiful shoulder line and gentleness the role demands, and did well with her sissonne soubresauts. Hu Yu-cheng (胡育政) as Albrecht looked every inch the nobleman and got some good height on his entrechats.
While each of the four pieces on the program had two casts that alternated for the five performances, Huang and Hu danced the leads in Giselle for each show.
After the very feminine opening act, the next two works really gave the male students a chance to shine.
Zhang Xiaoxiong’s (張曉雄) Guang Ling Verse (廣陵散) is a very complicated piece for 10 dancers set to a recording of 10 Han Dynasty guqin (古琴) masterpieces played by Guan Pinghu (管平湖). The dancers learn their movements by counting breaths, not beats, and the patterns were constantly changing. It was fascinating to watch.
Hsieh Cheng-yu (謝承佑) and Zhong Shun-wen (鐘順文) were wonderful in their solos, while Weng Ming-hung (翁銘鴻) and Chang Chieh-hann (張杰瀚) shone in their duet.
Chang Kuo-wei (張國韋) is a very young choreographer and his hip-hop influenced Alternate Realm (鏡界), set on 12 men, is only his second big piece, but he shows a lot of promise and I anticipate great things from him in the future.
Twenty-two of the students, male and female, rounded off the night with a well-executed repertory class version of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) artistic director Lin Hwai-min’s (林懷民) Cursive (行草). Cloud Gate veterans Chiu I-wen (邱怡文) and Lin Chia-liang (林佳良) have done a great job training the students and it showed.
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