The National Theater Concert Hall’s (NTCH) biennial fall series, Dancing in Autumn (舞蹈秋天), this year has a bittersweet flavor, as it features farewell works by two great choreographers: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) founder and artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and British contemporary choreographer Akram Khan, although in the latter’s case, it is a goodbye to his role as a performer, not a choreographer.
This year’s series, appropriately titled Stop Talking, Start Dancing! (閉幕派對), offers a wide variety of works, both big and small, that are sure to keeping people talking for weeks, if not longer.
In addition, two of the major productions will also be performed in Kaohsiung and Taichung, spreading the wealth from north to south, while for the first time the Cloud Gate Theater in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) will be the venue for another.
Photo courtesy of Jean-Louis Fernandez
So while Cloud Gate’s EXCHANGE, featuring works by Lin, his successor, Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍) and TAO Dance Theater (陶身體劇場) founder Tao Ye (陶冶), is one of the series highlights, it will premiere at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) on Friday next week, before opening at the National Theater on Oct. 17 and then moving to the National Taichung Theater (NTT) on Oct. 26 as part of that theater’s Fall for Great Souls (遇見巨人) series.
Lin’s work, Autumn River (秋水), is set on five senior dancers who are leaving the company, while Cheng’s piece, Multiplication (乘法), is set on TAO’s nine dancers, and Tao’s piece, 12, is set on 12 Cloud Gate dancers.
Khan’s production, XENOS, features his final performances as a dancer in a full-length work; after decades of dancing, his 45-year-old body is reaching the point where he is no longer sure he can perform to his exacting standards.
Photo courtesy of Liu Chen-hsiang
XENOS, which means “stranger” or “foreigner,” was inspired by the plight of the hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers who fought for the British Empire in World War I, and suffered through the massive slaughter of the frontline battle fields of that conflict.
Khan’s idea is that “be it to live or to die, war has made us strangers to ourselves.”
XENOS opens at the NTT’s Playhouse on Oct. 26 for two shows before moving to the National Theater for three performances starting Nov. 1.
Photo courtesy of Grouped’ArtGravelArtGroup
Dancing in Autumn actually kicks off on Thursday next week with Frederick Gravel’s Some Hope for the Bastards, an ode to the apathy and helpless feelings of impotence of a society that has lost its way, at the National Theater, while a mixed program at the National Experimental Theater opens the following night, featuring solo dances by Taiwanese choreographers Su Pin-wen (蘇品文), Tien Hsiao-tzu (田孝慈) and Cheng Hao (鄭皓), who were challenged to create a dance within the timeframe of a TED video.
Su Wen-chi’s (蘇文琪) Anthropic Shadow (人類黑區) will be in the Experimental Theater from Oct. 18 to 20, followed by Belgian choreographer Jan Martens’ double bill of Rule of Three and Ode to the Attempt from Oct. 24 to 27.
Marten’s works were inspired by the idea of creating dance works based on the state and perception of a person’s mind when they are using their smartphone.
Photo courtesy of Jens Sethzman
Vessel, created by Belgian choreographer Damien Jalet and Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa, will be performed at the Cloud Gate Theater from Nov. 15 to 17, while Danish choreographer Mette Ingvartsen’s to come (extended), an updating of her 2005 work about human sexuality and pleasure, will be performed at the Experimental Theater from Nov. 15 to 17.
For the series finale, Meimage Dance (何曉玫MeimageDance) will perform Ho Hsiao-mei’s (何曉玫) latest full-length work renaissance of its ashes(極相林) at the National Theater starting on Nov. 23.
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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located