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APDT 2008 Puppet Ballet PREMIER

The brand new annual production of ACME Physical Theatre, Puppet Ballet, is an animated dance that exhibits traditional hand puppet show performed in front of Taiwanese temples and reveals the spirit of “Made in Taiwan.” It combines several elements such as ballet dance, hand puppets, story-telling, cosplay, and installation art. The leader of Wu Zhou Yuan Hand Puppet Theatre, Mr. Huang Wen Lang, manipulates puppets and narrates stories in person, getting out of conventional hand puppet performing shack, guiding performers and cosplay actors to step into the audiences, ushering the audiences’ vision from the auditorium to the stage, symbolizing that the dynamics of Taiwanese folk art has rushed on to the western-style stage. In the meantime, ballet dancers begin their dancing ahead of the stage. Seeing tremendous puppets unexpectedly falling from the top with the narration of an experienced master, the play is indeed fierce and vivid, full of genuine excellence! The revolutionary thoughts and distinct integration of arts guarantees the audience to feel the uniqueness of “Puppet Ballet.”

On the stage, a dozens of round steel stools are deployed and the old-style hand puppet performing shack are put up in order to lively recreate the traditional scene of Taiwanese temples. Multimedia projection demonstrates the renowned Ballet Comique de la Renine of 1582, innovatively delivering traditional ballet dance to the performing shack of hand puppets. Dancers with toe shoes on their feet and puppets on their hands would dance along with musical notes of cembalos of Bach; several huge puppets are even installed high on top of the stage to look down upon the dancers, creating a magnificent scene stimulating audiences to reflect the subject-object relation between dancers and puppets; it also allows the audiences to experience the joy of traditional outdoor drama and modern cosplay acting. The play contains fun and conflicting factors and intriguingly blends Taiwanese temple art with traditional western royal amusement. With your eyes watching the mixture of oriental and western traditional art; ears hearing fine music composed by Golden Horse winner, Ling Chiang, remixed by a specialist of Folk Music Graduate Institute, Chen Chau Ching; feeling the talent of artistic choreographer Shih Ji Jr; admiring the 40-year technique of Huan Wen Lang, the first grandson of national renowned Huan Hai Dai, to perform along with the finest dancers in central Taiwan. Puppet Ballet is going to impress the international performing art admirers with the distinction of Taiwanese dance and reapprove them with the innovative spirit of “Made in Taiwan.” The whole choreography is about to introduce a feast of professional dancers with the combination of cross-sector arts to the audience. The choreographer concludes the production with the following interpretation:

“The stage and the shack interchanges; the western and the oriental tradition together traces; the swan in the palm significantly amuses; the outdoor sky horse dances and gallops.”

APDT Event News

APDT 2007 PET PREMIER

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Origin: The hustle of modern life does not fill the emptiness in people’s minds; they turn to all sorts of “pets” for consolation. This dance was inspired by such an absurd and ridiculous phenomenon, and wishes to discuss it by integrating different forms of performing art. People depend too much on these “pets”, material, shallow, virtual and temporary, to the point that they ignore and even twist the positive effects these pets ought to bring to their owners. Pet intends to show the changes in the mental state of “pet owners”, and for the audience to realize that all that they need is to love themselves, their body and their soul.

PET

The first half of Pet is presented with a humorous and fast-paced tempo of modern life, reflecting the emptiness in people’s minds, and explaining the reason why they can be over-anaclitic to their “pets”. There’s nothing wrong in the possession of a pet that fits one’s personal interest, for it has positive effects in releasing stress, sharing emotions and socializing with others, yet it may also cause problems of over dependence to their owners. The choreographer immixtures the different choices of pets of people from different age groups and backgrounds, broadening the issue of pets through creativity and observation. Besides common cats and dogs, a pet can also be a doll to little girls, the obsession with muscles to body-builders, name brands to fashionable women, the whole Internet world to computer geeks, bar girls to rich men, cool motorcycles to bikers…Material, shallow, virtual, and temporary, pets include everything that people bestow obsession upon.

In this part of the dance, images that reflect real life are introduced onto the stage. Realistic, ironic, forthright and sincere, these images reveal the fetishism one sees, or has. There are dance, music, drama and video, and there are dancers, singers and actors; we choose to take advantage of dance theatre, lively, challenging, humorous, realistic and ironic, because we want our audience to relate to the stage better. Is it the “pets” that change their owners, or is it the owners who decide to let their “pets” become the object of their obsession? Once you ponder on that question, you’ll realize that ordinary scenarios actually contain extraordinary connotations.

As for the second half of Pet, we’re back to a purer form of dance, constructing a modern caprice of breaking free. Dancers dressing as female office workers escape from endless typing, printing, faxing and telephone rings, turning from well-behaved robots to animals that are wild and free -- the imitations of cats, dogs, insects, and fish bring forth a different atmosphere from that of the first half of the dance. At the same time, the background music, shifting among electronic, percussion, and jazz, takes the audience outside of the office to pubs, parks, and all the other fun places. These lovely “pets” play alone or in groups, using the skill of contact to form constantly changing stage presentation; with great adeptness and tacit understanding, dancers challenge gravity as well as the limits of their bodies. The audience will be freed from the stress and confinement of work through the performance.

Pet intends for the audience to see the changes in the mental state of “pet owners”, and for the audience to realize that all that they need is to love themselves, their body and their soul.

TIME & PLACE & PRICE

TIME: PM 7:30, 10/19/2007 (Friday); 10/20/2007 (Saturday)

PRICE: NT$ 300, 400, 500

PLACE: Taichung Chungshan Hall (No. 98, Rd. Hsuehshi, Taichung City)

Acme Physical Dance Theatre

http://www.apdt.com.tw/

04-22024759

Artsticket

http://www.artsticket.com.tw/

04-22250998

Acme Physical Dance Theatre 2006 ＜Window＞ Event

2007.5/9
Bureau of Cultural Affairs Hsinchu City

2007.5/16
Culture Affairs Bureau of Miaoli County

2007.5/19
Keelung City Cultural Affairs Bureau

Acme Physical Dance Theatre 2005＜TRUE MAN＞

“True Men” is composed of two scenes. Scene one features ancient Eastern style, solemn and dignified in tone, while scene two is Western, modern, and fast-paced. However, the two seemingly opposite scenes in fact present one central theme – “True and Untrue.”

In Scene One we see artists reveling in the joy of life, writing, painting, chanting, dancing, and playing music at their pleasure. This is a modern interpretation of “True Men” in Chung Tze. The choreography is inspired by the ancient Chinese who practiced writing on the ground by using bamboo sticks as pens. Their movements are a fusion of sword dance and writing; now pointing and piercing, now swinging and swirling like swords. The energy flows through their breath and movements. It’s an innovation of the Eastern dance. It’s a representation of the Western proverb, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” The audience would have to see it with their heart to comprehend.

Scene Two portrays “seeing the true through the untrue” with ease and humor. The dancers dance with “untrue (unreal) people”-- puppets of real human size. Amidst the sound of the trance music, the dancers move around in awkward and eccentric movements. The puppets dance with “true men”. Then the true men in turn mimic the untrue people (puppets) by manipulating each other like puppets. The dancers form lots of contact and combinations in the movements. The subjects and the objects begin to get confused, and so do the real and unreal, the true and untrue, creating a comic effect. It bears a striking resemblance with the lives of modern people – fast-paced, having to play different roles and change identity constantly to adapt to the ever-changing human relationships. The chaotic and countless movements may seem easy, but are in fact difficult and complex. The scene begins with the combinations of two people, then three, four, five and six people, touching each other and passing around the energy. These images represent the relationships between subjects and objects. The arrangements are complicated and full of drama, and every element in the dance is connected, creating a rich and engaging effect.

The choreographer Mr. She conceives scene one as revealing the artists’ true nature - the “true men.” Scene two also discusses the theme of “true men”, but argues from the opposite standpoint in the image of the “fake men”. He uses real people to play puppets as a satire of the modern human relationships where people manipulate and use each other. The real human beings and the puppets form an interesting contrast. As a quote from the Chinese classic “A Dream of the Red Chamber” goes, “When the unreal becomes real, the real becomes unreal. When the real becomes unreal, the unreal becomes real.” As a stark contrast to the solemn and pure “true men” in Scene One, in Scene Two the dancers become “untrue”, fooled and manipulated.

Acme Physical Dance Theatre 2004 ＜Grass Mountain＞ Video

Grass Mountain (Yangmingshan)
Conceived and choreographed by Artistic Director Shih Gee-Tze

This, the newest of Acme Physical Dance Theatre’s National Park series reveals a handful of the mysteries surrounding Yangmingshan or "Grass Mountain". This park is significant for many reasons. The most immediate of these is in its function as a natural sanctuary to the residents of Taipei City. Its close physical proximity acts as a huge garden for city dwellers to escape their busy and stressful lives. Indeed, historically, it has served this function since the beginning of Japanese rule (1895.)

Grass Mountain is also unique in its geological makeup. Volcanoes and fuming crevices steam and fume through a barren tortured landscape, while a stone’s throw
away, butterflies dance among masses of vibrant trees, shrubs and greenery. Owing to this layered nature of Yangmingshan park, choreographer Shih Gee-Tze has chosen to present the multiple aspects of meaning through 4 separate acts: “Blossoming,”“Red Mountain,”“Night Scenery,” and “Mountain Living.”

Act One: The Blossoming

In season, azaleas, flowering plums, cherries and other flowers attract swarms of flower watchers as well as butterflies and pollinating insects. To best present this vitality and dynamism of spring, we choose to look at the mysteries of a misty morning sunrise and the awakening of butterflies, young bees, and flocks of songbirds. To frame this concept, Choreographer Gee-Tze has chosen to present the “unveiling” of the Toyogo (gauche) painting by Japanese artist Kinoshinta Seigai (1889-1992). During his nearly 25 years as a North Taiwan resident, Mr. Seigai drew inspiration from the surrounding scenery. As the sun wipes away the remains of night’s stillness, this Segai masterpiece is revealed and nature rejoices.

Act Two: Red Mountain

The inspiration for this act comes from two historical myths. The first involves Yu Yung -Her a volunteer Ching Dynasty(1644-1912) military commander who was sent to explore Taiwan on behalf of a Chinese Emperor for 10 months. Yung-Her was an early archivist and cultural anthropologist. He was the first emissary to Taiwan from the Mainland to record the island’s geography, people, and culture by writing his “Be– Hi itinerary” (roughly, a travelogue by surmounting the Taiwan Strait to Formosa).
As a result of Grass Mountain’s long standing sulphur mine, certain areas have the special red of chemically rich earth and subterranean heat. One day, Yung-Her watched the sun’s setting colors through the rising steam of this sulphur-orange landscape and eternally claimed “The grass of the Red mountain appears to be on fire.”
Another inspiration comes from the aboriginal Ketagalan People who live on and around Yangmingshan. They claimed the subterranean heat, vapors and fumes to be sent by witches and named the place “Patauw” (translated, simply, as witch). This myth perpetuated throughout the period of Japanese rule (Japanese occupiers bathed in the “Witch’s hot spring ”) and continues today with signposts for the Patauw area of the park.
To emphasize these two stories, Gee-Tze has attempted to recreate the burning ground using unusual floor materials, smoke, and lighting. In this landscape, a lost tourist is met and seduced by a non-human witch. Through their interaction, a communication develops that leads the tourist and the audience on a unique mountain journey through this unusual beautiful territory.

Act Three: Night Scenery

While the most familiar view of Grass Mountain is that by daylight, many modern Taipei residents visit to appreciate the magical vistas of night. Indeed, throughout the night, young people visit to stargaze far from the distracting neon of downtown, and lovers congregate to share romantic moments with a view only comparable to those mountain lookouts of Hollywood movies. Some call Grass Mountain a “non-sleeping” mountain.

To present this, we have attempted to emulate nature’s majesty. Gee-Tze has designed a space using a multitude of tiny electric bulbs dotting the stage. Dancers play among and around this romantic “starscape” in solos, duets and complex group movement. By running and flying through and under the bulbs, they enrich the active Grass Mountain nightscape.

Act Four: Mountain Living

As a natural place becomes popular with the masses, care has to be taken to preserve that which drew the hordes in the beginning. No one is greater witness to the changes that popularity brings than the residents of Grass Mountain themselves. They witness the daily confrontation of nature and the modern world. In preparation for this piece, Mr. Shih Gee-Tze visited and interviewed Yangmingshan elder lifetime resident Qiu A-Haw. He was a cowherd who has taken care of hundreds of bulls since childhood and worked as a porter to carry heavy things up and down the mountain. “Day after day,” he said, “time changes rapidly.” Even with the protection granted under the status of a national park, the crowds appear on the mountain on holidays and special events. However, nature is amazingly resilient. If care is taken, the rhythm does not change, and the Flowers bloom, the crevices fume , and the cicadas sing on.

To represent this daily drama of the natural world and challenges that this new generation brings, Mr. Gee-Tze positions a solo female dancer. She is the classic delicate and graceful azalea existing in the breeze. She must maintain her own light among the arriving trio of non-traditional up tempo new-generational influences. This strenuous contrast—the competition for light and the purity of sound, is brought to a climax by mother nature herself. People must live by the rules of nature to survive and the dancers are “swallowed” by the mountain. To represent this, we see another gouache painting of a magnificent mountain and trees by Japanese artist Gobara Koto(1892 ~1965), whose work is often featured in Taiwan. As the dancers walk into the mountain, their minds focus on the mountain and feel the passing of time and learn to respect the power of nature.

〈Zhan Zhuang〉　　　→ ←
<Zhan Zhuang> Content and uniqueness of this project

1.	Utilize the motion picture projection of human dancers and Chinese characters for acupuncture points to create special effects.
2.	Develop a fresh new style of oriental contact technique by refashioning "Pushing hands" in combination with traditional sparring.
3.	Utilize several net "scrim" screens with images of body parts in their sparring gestures to create an all-encompassing imaginative martial arts environment.
4.	Open the view from the stage and take the action outdoors, like opening a window to see the natural world outside. We do this through video footage of dancers in action on different levels of a tree.
5.	Involve the audience in a wonderful and innovative way through the use of the traditional show program as a "guide for healthy living." Ideas for achieving a healthy mind and a fit body are incorporated into the program book. This allows the audience to get enjoyment; not only from the live performance, but also in a form they can take home and practice in their daily lives.
	The dance work Zhan Zhuang is based on a fundamental component of eastern martial arts known as Zhan Zhuang, or “standing like a tree.” In the original form of this exercise, the practitioner positioned his feet on top of a tree stump. He strove to become rooted, cultivate his internal energy, and put stability before motion. Henceforth, he could be still like Mount Tai, but powerful like a mighty river.
	As a result of deep inquiry into the fundamental ideas underlying Zhan Zhuang, the choreographer has developed a new vocabulary for eastern dance. An example is the harnessing of energy created by cultivating qi in the dantian (a point just below the navel) so as to allow a body crouching low or lying prostrate to smoothly and elegantly glide along the ground. As energy is conducted between toes, knees, legs, buttocks, waist, back and shoulders, each momentarily becomes the sole interface between the body and the ground. Another example is the beauty of standing still on tiptoe: a bubbling spring of energy wells up from the earth, and all things converge as if one has gone to heaven. One enters a wonderland where the body is still and suffused with the energy of the world.
	The music selected for the dance work Zhan Zhuang includes “polyphonies vocals” of Taiwanese aborigines, Tibetan vocal music, ancient Japanese and Indonesian music, As will as contemporary music accompanied by eastern instruments. Furthermore, the traditional motion “thirteen sounds” from Chinese opera (the sound of beating upon one’s own body to let the audience hear the “body sounds” of the dancers). Is incorporated. This music combines with a contemporary dance vocabulary developed from eastern martial arts—a new of incorporating of contemporary aesthetics refashioning “Five Flowers” and “Waving Hands Like Clouds” in new forms. It draws upon activities involving contact such as “pushing hands” and “sparring” to provide feelings of spontaneity —to give “searching for one’s roots” a new interpretation for the twenty-first century.