It is not surprising that Chinese choreographer Yang Zhen (楊朕) would chose to create a work that examines Chinese ethnic minorities; he earned a master’s degree in 2015 from Minzu University of China in Beijing, which is designated for that nation’s ethnic minorities.
Minorities (少數民族), which opens tonight at the Wellspring Theater, is one of the few dance-focused shows in this year’s Taipei Arts Festival line-up.
I say “dance-focused” because Yang’s cast includes actors, dancers and a singer.
Photo courtesy of Wellspring Theater
Yang is something of a boy wonder having made a splash at Beijing Dance Week and other festivals around China while still working on his degree.
He has said that he drew on his years at the university and trips he took to various groups, as well as the experiences of his performers, who hail from Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Europe to create the show, which is a coproduction of the Taipei Arts Festival and Dance Munich.
Minorities is the final instalment in his “Revolution Game” trilogy, the first part of which, Piece Just Go Forward (大膽往前走) premiered two years ago and examined the role of women in Chinese society and the individual desire for freedom versus the collective imperative.
Part two, In the Field of Hope (在希望的田野上), examined the hopefulness of China’s youth to the economic reforms and opening to the West begun in the early 1980s by then paramount Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平).
Cao Chengyuan (曹誠淵), a Chinese modern dance promoter, said Yang is a rare breed in China in that he is “willing to reflect on the relationship between the state, society and the individual, and even face the political issues that many people avoid.”
The show runs 85 minutes without intermission. It comes with an advisory that there will be occasional nudity and its lighting and visual effects might bother some viewers.
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