This performance combines the work of two male choreographers in their prime, and is a newly arranged work featuring a unique style and mutual dialogue during the second half.
Baotanz.tw is derived from the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, which describes how God punished humans for their arrogance and stopped the construction of the Tower of Babel by confusing their speech and scattering them around the world. Building on the meaning of the Tower of Babel (confusion of speech), Hua- Bao CHIEN uses the performing arts to transcend the formal constraints of language and express the body's trans-linguistic characteristics. The work explores how to compose and construct a discipline of communication, and transform the body into a medium of communication via physical forms during performance. Bodily movements form a series of linked symbols, which guide viewers in seeing how the performers' express ineffable truths and challenge the arrogance of the body.
Building on his idea since 2013 about contemporary dance and choreographic forms, Wei-Chia SU uses his FreeSteps with different dancers and their physical textures as his material, together with a sculptural creative approach, to inscribe each dancer's form in fine detail. This act of co-creation featuring the long-term condensation and distillation of the choreography and performers present a series of images of the body to emerge before our eyes.
Choreography ｜Hua-Bao CHIEN
Born in Yilan, Taiwan, CHIEN holds an MFA in dance performance from Taipei National University of the Arts, and has also attended the department of dance at National Taiwan University of Sport and the dance section at National Taiwan University of Arts. He has served as a solo dancer in Tanzcompagnie Giessen Germany and a special dancer in The Seldoms of Chicago. He received the WBAC's annual Best Choreography Award and Best Contemporary Work Award in 2020.
Choreography ｜ Wei-Chia SU
Wei-Chia SU was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, graduated from National Taiwan College of Arts, where he was taught and inspired by Prof. Su-Fen Wu, and founded HORSE in 2004. In 2013, he embarked on a 10-year choreographic project entitled "FreeSteps," which sought to determine the precise limits of the dancing body and forge links of the imagination and emotions between viewers and the performers.