After a year’s absence from the nation’s capital, the Kaohsiung City Ballet (KCB, 高雄城市芭蕾舞團) annual Dance Shoe (點子鞋) is returning to the National Experimental Theater this weekend as the company starts a three-city tour of a show curated to appeal to a wide variety of ballet fans.
The closure last year of the Experimental Theater as part of the National Theater’s complex’s renovation restricted the company to performances down south, which was too bad because it was continuing proof that company founder Chang Hsiu-ru (張秀如) has a great eye for choreographic talent.
However, the company is back — though for just two shows instead of the standard three — with a line-up that includes works by Chang favorites Dai Ting-ru (戴鼎如), Constantin Georgescu and Lai Hung-chung (賴翃中) as well as two dancer/choreographers who have appeared in previous shows, but not choreographed works for them: Chien Lin-yi (簡麟懿) and Wei Tzu-ling (魏梓錂).
Photo Courtesy of Kaohsiung City Ballet
Tickets for the two shows are going fast: As of press time last night there were just about a dozen left for the premiere and about 40 left for Sunday’s matinee.
Georgescu’s Breath is a duet for himself and Lu Tian-ruei (呂天瑞) set to a piece by one of modern choreographers’ favorite composers, Max Richter.
Georgescu describes the piece as a discreet look at the border between being awake and being asleep.
Photo Courtesy of Kaohsiung City Ballet
“The mind territory we are travelling when falling asleep requires us to undergo a strong transformation toward a state that is out of our control and at the same time, it is very much connected to who we are,” he writes in his introduction. “This transition forces us to leave behind all that we think is defining us and yet, during this time we might get a glimpse of old, forgotten memories.”
I have high hopes for Lai’s piece, False (謬), which is set to two selections, Grace and Darkened from “The Mouth of The Sun Risen.”
His duet Raining in the Room was the standout in last year’s Dance Shoe production and it marked the start of what turned out to be a very good year for him, as he and dancers Cheng I-han (鄭伊涵) and Chien went on to win the third prize and critics’ prize at the 31th International Choreographic Competition Hannover in Germany in June with Watcher, and then took first prize at the 16th Burgos & New York International Choreography Competition in Spain with Birdy the following month.
Photo Courtesy of Kaohsiung City Ballet
Chang also commissioned Lai and Georgescu to help celebrate her company’s 25th anniversary in August by creating works based on Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons for a production entitled Light (光).
Dai’s new work Liuguang zhidao (流光之島) is a pas de trois set to music by Olafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm. She will dance in the piece along with Hsia Chia-hui (夏嘉徽) and Lu.
Chien’s work, Shall We, is set on a quartet, including himself, to a rather eclectic soundtrack ranging from excerpts music from Pina Bausch’s works, to Electric Moonlight from the Moonbug soundtrack.
Wei’s piece, another pas de trois, is Jianxi (間 隙) and is set to a piece by Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass entitled Offering.
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