In the 1970s, dance students returning from abroad gave dance in Taiwan a Western look. In the 1990s, Asian styles were on the rise. Now, a fusion Western and Asian elements holds sway. "A similar trend can be seen in Jackie Chan's movies, in which kungfu is complemented by Western humor," Shih Gee-tze (石吉智), founder and choreographer of Acme Physical Theater (極至體能), told the Taipei Times.
The group's new piece Zhan Zhuang (
Acme Physical Theater was the first professional modern dance group to be based in Taichung, where it was established in 1997. It remains the only one. It was both out of love for Taichung, where he had taught dance for years, as well as the competition in Taipei that made Shih choose to stay in central Taiwan.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ACME PHYSICAL THEATER
"Taiwan's cultural development is seriously lopsided," Shih said. "Taipei gets the lion's share of cultural resources as well as the economy. We often say it's a situation of the North getting more consideration than the South in Taiwan (
Most of Shih's works are inspired by nature and how humans interact with it. In Feel and Respond, Acme Physical's performance in France last year, Shih combined inspiration from his life in the green city of Taichung with a trip to the magnificent landscape of Australia.
Millennium Ritual, which premiereed in 1999, was about humanity's attempt to communicate with nature. 1998's Three Dynamics is an exploration of how our bodies interact with the forces of nature.
Shih's interest in nature originated in a childhood spent freely painting playground floors, running through rice fields and climbing trees in the Kaohsiung countryside. This intimacy with things natural has Shih relatively unrestrained by academic dance training.
Before Shih left graduate school, his professor Lin Huai-ming told him that he was awful at ballet and awkward at modern dance, but that he caught everyone's eye when it came improvisation. "I guess I learned my style from nature instead of school," Shih said.
As a teenager Shih thought of dance as either a tacky retro ethnic showcase or an embarrassingly effeminate exercise in pink tights. Fortunately, its was not long before a video of French choreographer Maurice Bejart's Spring Ritual changed his mind and set him on the path to choreography.
"I did not realize that dance could be powerful and masculine until then," Shih said. He has since boldly integrated martial arts into his choreography. The externalization of energy flows in the body typical of the practice has distinguished the performances by Acme Physical since its founding. The same can be said of Zhan Zhuang. Meaning "standing like a tree," zhan zhuang is a basic martial arts exercise in which practitioners position themselves on top of a tree stump where they strive to be physically as well as mentally rooted while steadily cultivating their internal energy at the same time.
"To get closer to the theme, the group practiced the dance on tree branches, where they tried to become part of the tree," Shih said. The movements of the dance come from constantly shifting the fulcrum of the body to different places. Shih expresses this in a solo by moving his center of gravity from his toes, to his knees, thighs, buttocks, back and finally to his shoulders. This way he falls and rolls on the floor and smoothly jumps up to stretch his expressive limbs, made to imitate a growing tree. The other five dancers take turns after Shih, demonstrating the same with their own improvisations.
By exercising chi in the area below the navel, the dancers are able to glide along the floor with their bodies prostrated or squatting low. The flow of energy through various pressure points is projected onto a huge screen on the background, allowing the dancers to manipulate it to humorous effect. The group's practice sessions on an enormous tree will also be projected onto the screen, bringing a touch of nature into the performance.
In a group dance, the six performers put their weight on each other to form a tenuously balanced structure. When the pile of dancers moves on stage, its fulcrum shifts from one dancer to another, creating a tense yet beautiful picture. The piece is accompanied by the celebratory chanting of the in the Bu-nung aboriginal tribe's house construction rituals.
The Body Sounds section uses percussive Indonesian folk music. The concept came from the "13 sounds," a movement created by loudly beating different parts of the body with one's bear hands. It can be found in various traditions from rural festivals in China to Chinese opera and can imply crude merriment or refined manners. By stylizing the practice in his dance, Shih presents a new approach for the audience to listen to their bodies.
Apart from his works, Shih's favorite topic is Taiwanese culture and its future.
"The current trend in Taiwan is to find something quintessentially Taiwanese that everyone can identify with. However, Taiwan has been influenced by many foreign cultures. From the mixture, we can find something particular to us," Shih said.
Acme Physical's inclusion of Japanese, Indonesian and Aboriginal elements in a choreography based on Western disciplines illustrates what Shih means. Comparing the style with Buto, a post-World War II Japanese dance form that shocked the world with its originality, Shih said that artists in Taiwan should also find something that Taiwanese do best and no other countries can imitate.
The martial arts elements characteristic of Acme Physical's performances often lead people to associate the group with Taoism. Denying any religious beliefs, Shih said, "If I had any religion, it would be dance. When I dance, I am in harmony with nature. I move my body the way Buddhists knock on wooden drums. Dance is my religion."
Zhan Zhuang will be performed at Chungshan Hall in Taichung at 7:30pm tomorrow and 3:00pm on Sunday. It will move to Nantou on Oct. 19, Taichung county's Chiengshui township on Oct. 27, Taoyuan on Dec. 28 and Miaoli on Jan. 4. Tickets are available at Acer ticketing outlets or at local cultural bureaus.
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