Works by three female Taiwanese mid-career choreographers take center stage this weekend in Taipei, one a new production and the other two selected excerpts from seminal performances, a rare chance for two small companies to revisit earlier works.
At the Wellspring Theater in Gongguan District (公館), SunShier Dance Theatre (三十舞蹈劇場) will perform cofounder Chang Hsiu-ping’s (張秀萍) new work, Mute (話語靜止時).
Mute is about a world without spoken language. Forced to go without talking, people change, as do their means of communication. They must find ways to transfer their feelings and ideas to others, and handle all their relationships, from friends, to business to intimates.
Photo courtesy of T.T.C. Dance
Chang worked with her dancers, who talked with her about their own life experiences, in creating the piece.
Several of her previous works have also focused on patterns of behavior, which is not surprising, considering the one-time Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (雲門舞集) dancer has a masters’ degree in sociology.
SunShier is giving just three performances of Mute, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday, although it will perform the show again at the end of October in Chiayi and Kaohsiung.
Photo courtesy of SunShier Dance Theatre
Over at the Experimental Theater an interesting “1 plus 1” show is being staged by T.T.C. Dance (張婷婷獨立製作), featuring excerpts from founder Chang Ting-ting’s (張婷婷) Body Platform: Cabinet Anthropomorphique (肢‧色:系列-抽屜人) and Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company (稻草人現代舞蹈團) artistic director Luo Wen-jinn’s (羅文瑾) Dripping (詭‧跡).
Chang said she and Luo have wanted to work together for a while, but have not yet had the chance.
She said she had already rented the theater and was planning to restage Cabinet Anthropomorphique as the start of a “cabinet year” to mark the fifth anniversary of her troupe, but was worried that selling tickets for an old production might be hard.
Since small companies in Taiwan rarely have the chance to show their older productions again, she thought perhaps Luo would want to give Dripping, which Chang had seen and liked, a second airing as well.
Luo’s piece, inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel Nausea, was co-created and performed with Li Pei-shan (李佩珊) in the Experimental Theater almost two years ago.
So while technically, Luo and Chang still are still not working together, “I am so glad she said yes,” Chang said.
“So people can buy one ticket and see two shows,” she said.
Cabinet Anthropomorphique, first staged at the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in Ximending (西門町), was the first production Chang created after returning to Taiwan from several years in the US.
It premiered in December 2012 and was chosen by the Ministry of Culture to be part of the Taiwanese contingent to the 2013 Festival Off d’Avignon in France.
Next month, T.T.C. Dance will perform Chang’s second “cabinet” work, Persistence of Memory (時空抽屜) at the Taipei National University of the Arts and then in December, it will premier Chang’s newest work.
At this weekend’s shows, T.T.C. Dance will perform a 30-minute excerpt from Chang’s work, while Scarecrow will perform a 32-minute excerpt from Dripping.
There is one other show this weekend that merits mention, because a handful of tickets have become available after the production was listed as sold out for weeks.
The Bulareyaung Dance Company (BDC, 布拉瑞揚舞團) is outside at the Cloud Gate Theater in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) for Bulareyaung Pagarlava’s newest work, Stay that way (無，或就以沈醉為名).
Inspired by French poet Charles Baudelaire’s Get Drunk, it features BDC’s dancers and three Aboriginal women singers from the east coast of Taiwan.
BDC quotes Baudelaire: “Don’t be martyred slaves of Time, Get drunk! Stay drunk! On wine, virtue, poetry, whatever” — for its open air program, to be performed against the backdrop of the sun setting over the Tamsui River.
As of press time last night, there were 15 tickets available for the Sunday afternoon show at www.artsticket.com.tw.
Performance Notes
What: Mute
When: Tomorrow and Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:30pm
Where: Wellspring Theater (水源劇場), 92 Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段92號)
Admission: NT$500 and NT$700; available at the NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com, at convenience store ticket kiosks and at the door.
Additional Performances: Oct. 21 at the Chiayi Performing Arts Center and Oct. 28 in Kaohsiung
What: 1+1, Cabinet Anthropomorphique and Dripping
When: Tomorrow and Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm
Where: Experimental Theater (國家實驗劇場), 21-1 Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號)
Admission: Tickets are NT$700, available at NTCH box offices, online at www.artsticket.com and convenience store ticket kiosks
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