The National Theater Concert Hall (NTCH) programmers were certainly trying to push some boundaries when they put together the line-up for this year’s edition of their biennial “Dancing in Autumn,” series, which opens in two weeks.
The eight shows, the majority of which will be in the Experimental Theater, feature works from a Taiwanese legend and two Taiwanese expatriates, artists from Japan, Greece, Israel, Scotland and Canada, and works that explore space, fantasy, breaking through restrictions on the disabled and Taiwan’s history.
Uniting the disparate works are two themes: “the extraordinary in the ordinary” and “hidden anomalies in everyday life.”
Photo: Courtesy of Yoshikazu Inoue
The series opens on Oct. 14 with Kyoto-based Japanese artist Shiro Takatani’s, cofounder of the multi-media performance group Dumb Type, 2015 production ST/LL (靜/止) in the National Theater.
The show combines dance with 3D film projections for a multi-dimensional tour de force, set to a score by famed composer and Academy Award winner Ryuichi Sakamoto.
The show, a meditation on time and space, is a technical marvel — and a nightmare, I am sure for stagehands — as all the actions on stage and film are mirrored by their reflections in a pool that forms the floor of the stage.
Photo: Courtesy of Julian MommertJCM
It also means that a large number of seats in the theater will have restricted views, as the best seats reportedly start at the back of the first floor’s middle section and those in the middle of the second level.
There will be a matinee and evening performance on Oct. 14 and a matinee on Oct. 15.
ST/LL will be followed a unique show — in the world of dance as well as Taiwan — that challenges the boundaries placed on people with disabilities.
Scottish choreographer/dancer Claire Cunningham was born with osteoporosis, and as a result, must walk with crutches. Her solo show, Give Me a Reason to Live (給我一個活下去的理由), which will be at the Experimental Theater on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, explores the judgment of religion on the body as well as the meaning of life and was inspired by the work of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch and the role of beggars and cripples in his works.
Cunningham will be followed in the Experimental by Unconditional Love and Fact (全然的愛與真實), the latest work of NTCH Artist-in-Residence Su Wen-chi (蘇文琪), who usually divides her time between Taipei and London.
Wu, the founder of YiLab (一當代舞團), was inspired in the work by her time last year with the artistic residency project “Accelerate@CERN” at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), which raised for her questions about scientists, research, skepticism and unconditionally acceptance.
She collaborated on Unconditional Love and Fact with Monpelier, France-based Lin I-fang (林怡芳), who performs in the show.
Israeli choreographers Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar latest work for the L-E-V Dance Company, OCD LOVE (強迫症之戀), opens on Nov. 11 in the Experimental Theater, but there are only a handful of seats left for the first two shows and the other two are sold out. Their show is about love, its hits and misses, and being out of sync.
Time is the common denominator for the remaining shows in the series.
Greek choreographer and stage director Dimitris Papaioannouwill be making his Taiwan debut with his brand new fantasy exploration of time and the meaning of life, The Great Tamer (偉大馴服者), which just premiered in May. The show, which also uses a lot of 3D imagery, opens at the National Theater on Nov. 16.
Exit (插銷), by Chinese choreographer Gu Jiani (古佳妮), which opens in the Experimental Theater on Nov. 16, is an exploration of the extensions of time — told with the help of a lot of white pillows.
Berlin-based Taiwanese choreographer Sun Shang-chi (孫尚綺) will be returning home in late November with a team from KNM Berlin to present their collaboration, Spur (溯形) in the Experimental Theater starting on Nov. 24.
Set to the music of Philip Glass, it explores the multiplicity of lives and the search for lost memories.
The grand finale of the series will be Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) artistic director Lin Hwai-min’s (林懷民) long awaited new work, Formosa (關於島嶼), which opens at the National Theater on Nov. 24 for a week-and-a-half of performances before beginning a three-city tour of the island.
The company says Formosa was inspired by Taiwan through time and the lives and loves of its people.
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