Tao Dance Theater to stage latest work at Shanghai Theater Academy

By Zhang Qian | October 22, 2015, Thursday |

Online Edition

Tao Dance Theater will stage its latest work “Eight” at Shanghai Theater Academy on October 23 and 24this weekend, exploring body aesthetics by logic and repeating body movement.

The work is jointly commissioned by Shanghai International Arts Festival, Gwanju Asian Art Theater and Sadler's Wells Theater, with its world premiere landed in Shanghai.

Established in 2008, the Beijing-based group has gained worldwide fame after touring over 40 countries and regions, performing at theaters and festivals like National Arts Center of Canada, Europalia International Arts Festival in Belgian, Singapore Arts Festival and Vienna Festival.

Choreography has always been about stretching “the boundaries of the flesh” for the Tao Dance Theater and its artistic director Tao Ye. Almost all of Tao’s works features abstract shapes in motion, exploring potential of the human body as a purely visual form with no narrative or underlying emotional subtext at all.

“Tao insists that all his works to be unique and new, providing a broad space for everybody’s imagination,” says Alison M.Friedman, director of Ping Pong Productions who is also the producer of “Eight”.

Most of Tao’s works were simply named after the number of dancers involved, avoiding any implying name frames audiences when appreciating and understanding the work. The Number Series ranging from “Two” to “Seven” has become a label of the Theater. The “One” keeps vacant as Tao plans to create a solo for his wife Duan Ni, who is also a dancer of the Theater.

The Number Series is now joined by “Eight”. All the eight dancers will restrict their body on the ground, limit all their movements within those can be achieved by moving spines. The dancers lying in lines are expected to visualize scenes like rolling hills and wind blowing over the mountains by such movements.

“Particular training is required for such demanding stage performances. Any new comers of the Theater need to take at least six months training before participating in the Theater’s works on stage. All of them need to be full-time theater members,” says Friedman.

There were concerns of whether such pioneering contemporary dance can be received by Chinese audiences with limited exposure to such art. But Li Ming, vice president of the Center for China Shanghai International Arts Festival, is quite confident about the audiences’ feedback.

“An increasing number of contemporary dancer programs have been staged at the Festival since years ago, trying to help cultivate particular audiences within the city,” says Li, “The number of potential audiences has been growing continuously. I would say that there are a group of mature contemporary dance fans so far in Shanghai, though the number may still be limited compared with those in the western world. ”

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Tao Dance Theater to stage latest work at Shanghai Theater Academy

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