Sun Chuo-tai (孫梲泰) admits his five dancers hate him right now, that he’s driving them to kill themselves.
But at least they will always remember Ripple, he says.
The latest work by the founder and director of 8213 Physical Dance Theatre (8213 肢體舞蹈劇場) opened last night at the Experimental Theater. It’s a bigger production that he’s tried before, thanks to a NT$1 million budget, and it’s the first time he isn’t dancing in one of his own works.
“I want to dance, not to make money. I tell the dancers that this piece will kill you — that it may kill you, but you will always remember it. I can’t remember most of the pieces I did [in other companies]; they weren’t memorable, they were too easy. This piece will test their limits, make them cross the line,” he said in an interview near his Beitou studio on Sunday.
Sun’s works are about the message as much as the dance, and he isn’t afraid of physical confrontation.
“We need to challenge ourselves to push modern dance in Taiwan, to push for the future. Taipei society is always unstable, you are gambling with your life by riding a scooter everyday,” he said
“So to create art from this — it’s not about soft, comfortable things. If you want peace, don’t come to our show. If you want a challenge, to see dancers almost dying, which is not pretty, then come see our show,” he said.
The show’s inspiration came from throwing rocks.
“One day I threw a rock into the water [and] saw a ripple. Threw two rocks, saw two ripples, but they bounced off each other, collided, joined. If you throw lots of rocks, there is still just one big ripple ... It made me think that if there is the right distance between people, you can live with each other, like between a father and son in the same apartment, they could be at peace, not fighting,” he said.
He’s very excited about the set, a big shiny plastic floor that’s lit from inside with LEDs. He was inspired by the shiny floor he remembers at his uncle’s house and the floors of dance clubs he frequented as a teen.
There will also be lots of speakers. Sun’s music designer prefers sound
to melody.
“If the audience doesn’t like it, at least they can’t sleep,” Sun said. “We spent a lot of money on speakers — the bass, the boom, boom, boom.”
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