Focus Dance Company (焦點舞團), the student-run troupe of Taipei National University of the Arts’ (TNUA, 國立臺北藝術大學) School of Dance, launches its Skyline-Fearless (撞牆天團) tour at its Guandu (關渡) campus home theater on Friday next week.
The tour, under the artistic directorship of assistant professor Wu Su-chun (吳素君), features 10 works by nine student or alumni choreographers, including Tsai Yi-ting, (蔡宜庭), Chang Chieh-hann (張杰瀚) and Lin Tse-an (林則安), plus two works by well-known alumni: Cloud Gate 2 (雲門2) artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍) and Lai Hung-chung (賴翃中).
The content of the shows will vary with different combinations of works, although both Cheng’s and Lai’s pieces will be performed for every show.
Photo courtesy of Chang Chia-hao
Lai, who had a stellar year on the international choreographic competition circuit last year and has formed his own troupe, Hung Dance (翃舞製作), created Bony (嶙峋), while Cheng allowed Focus to perform The Wall (牆), a 21-minute work set to Michael Gordon’s Weather One that premiered in 2009 and was overhauled two years later.
■ Friday and Saturday next week at 7:30pm, Saturday and Sunday next week at 2:30pm at the Taipei National University of the Arts Dance Theater (國立臺北藝術大學展演藝術中心戲劇廳), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號). Tickets are NT$450, or NT$1,000 for a “sponsorship” ticket and are available online at www.artsticket.com.tw, at convenience store ticketing kiosks and at the door. The two matinees are sold out.
■ Tour dates: April 14 at 7:30pm at the Chiayi Performing Arts Center (嘉義縣表演藝術中心演藝廳), 265, Jianguo Rd Sec 2, Minsyong Township, Chiayi County (嘉義縣民雄鄉建國路二段265號); April 20 at the Jhongli Arts Center (中壢藝術館), 16 Jhungmei Rd, Taoyuan City (桃園市中壢區中美路16號); May 5 at the Da-Dong Cultural Center (大東文化藝術中心) 161 Guangyuan Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市光遠路161號); May 12 at the Taichung Chungshan Hall (台中中山堂), 98 Hsuehshi Rd, Taichung City (台中市學士路98號). All performances start at 7:30pm.
■ Tickets range from NT$250 to NT$450, with some NT$1,000 sponsorship tickets depending on the location, and are available online at www.artsticket.com.tw, at convenience store ticketing kiosks and at the door.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby