Choreographer Benson Tsai (蔡博丞) loves to travel and to collaborate, and he has gotten a lot of chances to do both since establishing his B.DANCE (丞舞製作團隊) company five years ago, as his work has earned entry to dance festivals and choreographic competitions around the world.
He also likes to bring some of the people he has met on his travels back to Taiwan. He worked with Luxembourg-based artist Jill Crovisier on Blah Blah Blah for the Kuandu Arts Festival in October last year, and in January B.Dance was at the National Experimental Theater for MILLENIALS, a coproduction with Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau and members of his Barcelona-based company La Veronal.
This week B.DANCE has been hosting its second “B.OOM by B.DANCE” festival, with workshops by award-winning choreographers and dancers that culminates with two performances at the Wellspring Theater in Taipei, starting tonight.
Photo courtesy of Ralf Mohr
The B.OOM by B.DANCE Joint Performance of Winners (國際金獎聯合匯演) program features solos, duets and group pieces by choreographers from five nations, plus Tsai.
Italian Andrea Costanzo Martini, a veteran of the Batsheva ensemble and company, as well as the Cullberg Ballet and Inbal Pinto Dance, will perform his solo, What Happened in Torino, which took first prize for both dance and choreography at the 2013 International Stuttgart Solo Competition and won the audience prize at the 2015 Mas Danza Festival in Spain.
Spaniards Miguel Zomas Ballabriga and Carmen Fumero Alfonso of the Carmen Fumero Company will perform a 15-minute version of their duet ERAN CASI LAS DOS (It Was Almost Two), which melds breakdancing and contemporary dance.
Photo courtesy of Chou Mo
Crovisier, who just last month won this year’s Letzebuerger Danzprais, a biennial award from the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture, will perform Zement, the solo.
Vietnam-born, Netherlands-based dancer/choreographer Tu Hoang will perform his duet Trial with Mitchell-lee van Rooij.
Trial won two prizes at last year’s Copenhagen International Choreography Competition — third place for choreography and the audience choice award, as well as an invitation to this year’s B.OOM festival, and on Saturday last week won the audience prize at this year’s Bern Dance Awards.
Germany-based Portuguese dancer/choreographer/designer Liliana Barros won the Outstanding Performer award at last year’s Copenhagen competition for her solo NERVURE, which explores gender issues.
Tsai’s contribution is his latest duet, Orthrus, which won the top award in Bern last Saturday, the Berner Tanzpreis, the second time he has won it. His previous win was for Floating Flowers (浮花) in 2017.
It is too bad that there will be just two performances of the program, but Tsai, his dancers and his guests are headed to Malaysia next week, where they will be presenting the program three times at the Damansara Performing Arts Centre in Kuala Lumpur, starting on Friday. The tour is sponsored by the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in Malaysia and the center.
B.DANCE then heads to France, where it will perform Rage from July 10 to 20 at Festival Off d’Avignon, before taking Floating Flowers to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland as part of the Taiwan Season from Aug. 2 to Aug. 25.
■ Tonight at 7:45pm, tomorrow at 2:45pm
■ Taipei City Shuiyuan (Wellspring) Theater (台北市水源劇場), 92 Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段92號)
■ Tickets are NT$900; available at the NTCH and Eslite ticket booths, online at www.artsticket.com and at convenience store ticket kiosks
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