Armed with a bachelor’s degree from the Fine Arts Department at National Taiwan Normal University and a masters from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Tong Yang-tze (董陽孜) explored the world of photography before turning her professional hand to Chinese calligraphy, which she first began studying when she was eight.
Over the past four decades, she has become famous for her massive cursive works, which are characterized by their expressiveness and movement. Her recognizable style has kept her in demand to create corporate logos, television credits and public installations, which fit with her mission to expand the boundaries of classic Chinese calligraphy, transcending the confines of the world of ink and paper and bring the beauty of the written work to new audiences and young people.
Tong has collaborated with a variety of artists from different disciplines — architect Ray Chen (陳瑞憲), pop-rock band Mayday (五月天) frontman Ashin (阿信) and singer-songwriter Cheer Chen (陳綺貞) — in recent years for installations, museum shows and performances, both in Taiwan and abroad, helping develop a new audience that appreciates the blend of classical techniques and contemporary art.
Photo courtesy of At Ease Studio
Last year’s SAO (騷), a collaboration with choreographers Bulareyaung Pagarlava and Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company (稻草人現代舞蹈團) artistic director Luo Wen-jinn (羅文瑾), musicians Stacey Wei (魏廣皓), Kunter Chang (張坤德) and Yohei Yamada — who performed during the show — and multimedia artist Chen Yan-ren (陳彥任), for the Taiwan International Festival of Arts sold out weeks before the show was performed at the Experimental Theater.
The reaction to SAO was so positive, and the collaboration was apparently so congenial, that Tong decided to expand the project. SAO PLUS (騷＋) will be performed this weekend at the Eslite Performance Hall in the basement of the Eslite Spectrum Shopping Mall, next door to the Songshan Culture and Creative Park in Taipei.
Musicians Wei, Chang, Yamada have been joined by Guras Vadu for the new show, which features choreography by Horse (驫舞劇場) cofounder and general manager Su Wei-chia (蘇威嘉). For dancers, Su chose two men that he has known from other Horse productions: Israeli Shai Tamir, who danced in Successor(繼承者) in 2011 and Huang Yung-Huai (黃詠淮) from 2013’s To Every Man His Dog (男人與狗).
It is a good thing that Su has such confidence in his dancers, since he will missed the first couple of shows of SAO PLUS. He is in Hong Kong performing with fellow Horse founder Chen Wu-kang (陳武康) in 2 Men at the Hong Kong Arts Festival Asia Pacific as part of the Dance Platform VII show, and will not return to Taipei until Sunday, just in time to catch the last two shows.
Multimedia artist Chen was once again tasked with creating the illuminating videos and projections for the show.
SAO PLUS sees Tong’s calligraphy shift from 2D to 3D as the dancers move to provisional jazz, creating new lines and contours and bringing the words to life.
Tong is not alone in seeing the connection between calligraphy and dance. Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) set the bar with his Cursive (行草) trilogy. Chinese dancer-choreographer Yang Yuntao (楊雲濤) created Spring Ritual · Eulogy (蘭亭‧祭姪) for the Hong Kong Dance Company (香港舞蹈團). However, each of these dance productions is as different as the calligraphers and the calligraphy that inspired them — each has its own character.
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