The TAO Dance Theater (陶身體劇場) is only nine years old, but it quickly developed a major reputation in China and internationally for its groundbreaking avant-garde, minimalistic works.
Choreographer Tao Ye’s (陶冶) choreography strips dance of its individuality and fripperies, including titling his works simply by the numbers of dancers used, and emphasizes uniformity.
Yet there is a method in his madness — the patterns he weaves are beautiful and the dancers’ physicality and stamina are awe-inspiring.
Photo: Courtesy of TAO Dance Theater
The company made its Taipei debut in March 2014 at Novel Hall, performing 2, 4, 5 and 6, as part of the long-running Novel Hall Dance Series curated by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民). TAO has been invited back to perform at Lin’s own theater in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) at the beginning of next month, and tickets have been going fast.
It will present a monochromatic double bill of 6 and 7: the former is very dark — in lighting, costume and mood, while the latter is glaringly white.
■ June 9 at 8pm, June 10 and June 11 at 3pm at the Cloud Gate Theater (淡水雲門劇場), 36, Ln 6, Zhongzheng Rd Sec 1, Tamsui District, New Taipei City (新北市淡水區中正路一段6巷36號)
■ There are less than 40 seats left for the June 9 show, at NT$1,400 and about 70 seats at the NT$1,600 price range left each of the other two shows; available online at www.artsticket.com.tw, at convenience store ticketing kiosks and at the door.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and