Kaohsiung is key to a series of dance performances this weekend, both in Taipei and at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying).
In Taipei, Kaoshiung-born Lai Hung-chung’s (賴翃中) Hung Dance (翃舞製作) is staging his latest work, See You (再 見), which premieres at the Shuiyuan (Wellspring) Theater tonight.
The inspiration for See You, Hung’s third full-length work for his four-year-old company, came from two very different experiences: a car accident that he saw in Kaohsiung several years ago, and his travels abroad to choreographic competitions and performances.
Photo courtesy of Hung Dance
Hung has said in interviews that seeing the accident was disturbing, but he couldn’t come up with the words to describe how he felt. However, he later realized that such indescribable states actually occur often in our lives, and as a dancer and choreographer he could look for ways to express such feelings and emotions through movement.
His frequent travels have also meant that he has met — and then said goodbye — to many people. He said he realized that the feelings aroused by such goodbyes can trigger strong physical responses, but those feelings and responses not only fade, they are not repeated, which made him wonder if they could be recreated in dance.
See You was originally planned as a short work, but he ended up not staging it due to travel commitments.
Photo courtesy of Tjimur Dance Theatre
However, this year turned out to be a good year to work on it again and expand it, he said.
Lai’s long-time collaborator Cheng I-han (鄭伊涵) leads the eight member cast.
Down at Weiwuying, the 2020 Dance Platform will be in full swing this weekend, with a series of performances by B.DANCE (丞舞製作團隊), a triple bill by two Pingtung County-based troupes — Tjimur Dance Theatre (蒂摩爾古薪舞集) and Resident Island Dance Theatre (滯留島舞蹈劇場) — and the Taipei-based Dua Shin Te Production (大身體製造), plus a show by the Bulareyaung Dance Company (BDC, 布拉瑞揚舞團), to go along with the films, workshops and open talks that it began staging on Monday.
The theme of this year’s biennial platform is “Encounter,” with a goal of moving dance from the theater to other spaces in people’s daily lives.
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, which has meant that the international festival curators and theater producers who would normally attend the platform cannot travel to Taiwan, Weiwuying has arranged to live-stream many of the workshops and shows, which means they are also available, via advance registration, to people around Taiwan as well.
B.DANCE will perform founder Benson Tsai’s (蔡博丞) exquisite Floating Flowers (浮花) tonight in the Opera House, with tickets ranging from NT$300 to NT$1,800.
Tomorrow night the Playhouse will be the stage of the Dance Together triple-bill, with Tjimur performing their 2017 hit, Varhung — Heart to Heart (Varhung — 心事誰人知), Resident Island giving a work-in-progress performance of Ice Age (冰河時期) and Dua Shin Te performing a special edition of Liu Yen-Cheng’s (劉彥成) A Piece of Cake. Tickets are priced from NT$300 to NT$800.
In Varhung — Heart to Heart, choreographer Baru Madiljin took the traditional Paiwan four-step dance and music and transformed them into contemporary dance.
Ice Age is a collaboration between Resident Island’s founder and choreographer Chang Chung-an (張忠安), who is visually impaired and whose works have often focused on disability issues, and French choreographer Maylis Arrabit, who dances from her wheelchair.
Liu’s A Piece of Cake is an exploration of time, objects and movement.
On Sunday, BDC will perform founder Bulareyaung Pagarlava’s terrific #Yes or NO (#是否), which premiered last year, in the Opera House, with tickets priced from NT$300 to NT$800.
#Yes or NO sees BDC’s multi-talented members sing, tell stories and, of course, dance, alongside Puyuma singer-songwriter Shan Hay.
More information about the Dance Platform can be found on Weiwuying’s Web site.
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