In the little over four years since they first took the stage, Off Performance Workshop (
But stretching is nothing new for the artists of Off Performance Workshop. The group started in 2000 as an offshoot of Performance Workshop (表演工作 坊), well-known for its stand-up comedy. Off Performance Workshop began with the goal of producing experimental theatrical works that would appeal to a relatively young audience.
To that end, the group has staged such successes as I'm a Dog (我是一隻 狗), a tragic-comedy that was partly a rock concert and, more recently, Drumming with Lear, which saw the group teaming up with Sun Son Theater (身聲演繹社) for a percussive interpretation of Shakespeare's classic tragedy.
PHOTO: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
And just to show they know the map, they let Chen Bo-wei (陳柏維), best known as the creator of Mr. Eyeball, direct the group in The Cruel Flower (殘酷的花朵 ), a "conceptual fashion show" which was nothing like Off Performance had done in the past and unlike any fashion show the audience had seen previously.
Under the direction of Lee Jian-chang (李建常), one of the group's founders, Dancing Mermaid, looks rather straightforward compared with the group's past work. Jiang Bo-shu (江保樹) dances the title role, which might better be called Dancing Merman. Alone with his thoughts, he swims unperturbed across the stage until he comes across three sirens that make waves in his world. He swims with them for a while, but with their exit, he's left wondering if it was all a dream.
Later, in his undersea apartment, the merman is revisited by the sirens. It's a bittersweet second meeting. He knows at least that it was not a dream, but the waves in his world grow more
tumultuous.
Jiang dances the lead role with all the fluidity you'd expect from a merman. He seems simultaneously unchoreographed and exact in his movement; a natural dancer who may not have had formal training but, as a result, speaks his own physical
language.
He's backed up by three dancers who seem to have had a similar amount of training. But, unlike Jiang, the girls are comparatively more choreographed and constrained by the synchronization of their movement. As a result, they lack Jiang's spontaneity. Where he is dancing his feeling, they're finding their footing.
Lee has done well with his choice of music, Pacu's Trip, by A Moving Sound. Formed in New York in 2001, the group's members, Scott Prairie, Mia Hsieh (謝韻雅 ) and Alex Wu (吳政君 ), actually live in Taiwan. They're world beating sound is a regular crowd pleaser at Taipei's Witch House.
Dancing Mermaid plays tonight through Sunday afternoon at the Crown Center Little Theater.
Performance notes:
Who: Off Performance Workshop
What: Dancing Mermaid
(人魚愛跳舞).
When: Tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30pm, with matinee performances tomorrow and Sunday at 2:30pm
Where: Crown Center Little Theater, located at 50, Lane 120, Tunhua N Rd, Taipei (北市敦化北路120巷50號).
Tickets: Cost NT$350 and are
available at the door.
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