No storyline, focus on natural body rhythms. From April 29 to May 4, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Taihu Stage Art will stage a series of modern dance works. The Tao Body Theater will perform all 11 works of the "Digital Series" for the first time in 6 days, allowing the public to appreciate the charm of modern dance art.
Founded in 2008, Tao Body Theatre is a full-time modern dance company that has created 11 works in the context of pure body movement in the "Digital Series". These works have toured more than 40 countries around the world, making Tao Body Theater one of the highly anticipated Chinese dance companies on the international stage. It is worth mentioning that Tao Ye and Duan Ni, artistic directors of Tao Body Theater, will personally re-perform their early works "2" on the stage this time, which will also become the "box sealing" performance of the works by the two founding artists.
The names of the works of the Tao Body Theater are very distinctive, and all 11 works are named after numbers, and how many dancers there are on the stage, which number is named. There is no storyline or specific theme in the interpretation of the work, all of which is to let the audience pay attention to the original essence of the dance art of the body. "We hope that by appreciating non-narrative dances, we can re-appreciate the changes in time, life and the body." Tao body theater manager Wang Hao said.
Behind the seemingly smooth and freehand dance movements, the difficulty of Tao's body works is extremely high, and Wang Hao, who was once a professional actor in national dance, still remembers the feeling of contacting "Heavy 3" more than a decade ago: "The action is crazy. On the one hand, Tao body works pursue minimalism, remove hairstyles, arms and other modifications, and even only lie down to dance; on the other hand, Tao body works are extremely complex, in more than ten minutes, each movement is refined to seconds, and dancers should always pay attention to the position of each part of the body, the cross-sectional form they form and the cooperation with the dancers around them. It is between this complexity and simplicity that the works of Tao Body are very attractive.
Interestingly, there are no mirrors in the rehearsal hall of the Tao Body Theater, which allows dancers to pay full attention to their own physical changes. They use the original circular motion system "raw brush drawing circle" training form, that is, the head, shoulders, calves and other parts in the space to draw different planes of circles, in the body's center of gravity, weight and spatial inertia of the action process, explore the purest natural rhythm of the body. In addition, the soundtrack of the work is also tailor-made for dance, and the musical styles vary in a variety of ways, but all have a clear sense of rhythm, which can better set off the body rhythm in the dance.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Taihu Stage Art Center of the National Centre for the Performing Arts, at present, the Taihu Dance Art Center of the Grand Theatre is giving full play to the performing arts function, gathering performing arts resources, focusing on creating an independent performing arts brand, and constantly launching premiere projects to help the development of Taihu Performing Arts Town with practical actions. The first full performance of the "Digital Series" is of great significance to enriching the cultural life of the masses in the capital and sub-centers of the city, and promoting the development of Taihu Performing Arts culture and cultural and creative industries.