Dance abounds in Asia TOPA
Asia TOPA (Asia Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts) is an artistic celebration of Australia’s relationship with contemporary Asia. Running from January to April 2017, Asia TOPA includes a number of dance productions from Asian and Australian companies. We’ve highlighted a selection of dance works coming up in February but it’s worth browsing the full program at www.asiatopa.com.au
From 2-5 February, Australia’s Luke George and Singapore’s Daniel Kok will present Bunny at Arts House. This works exploits the physical properties of rope and knots to unpick the boundaries of desire, trust, consent and communication between artist and audience, “Bunny” and “Rigger”. George and Kok explain that ‘Bunny’ is a nickname given to the person being tied in rope bondage – “This work asks – what if everyone in the theatre is a Bunny?” Staged in the round, the web of technicoloured ropes draws performer and audience into an increasingly enveloping bind.
National Ballet of China’s production of The Red Detachment of Women, plays Arts Centre Melbourne 15-18 February. This 1964 work is considered by many to be a cultural icon. Set in the 1930s on the lush tropical island of Hainan, The Red Detachment of Women is based on the stories of an all-female company of the communist Red Army. A peasant girl who has escaped the clutches of a tyrannical landlord joins the Red Detachment brigade and leads them to defeat her former tormentor and liberate the people. In the February/March 2017 edition of Dance Australia, Matthew Lawrence discusses the relationship of politics and ballet, using The Red Detachment of Women as the springboard for discussion.
Arts Centre Melbourne will also host China’s TWO Dance Theater performing 6 and 8 between 22 and 24 February. The two works are created by Chinese philosopher-choreographer Tao Ye, known for his minimalist contemporary dance. Tao Ye has developed techniques that enable dancers to explore their most extreme potential. In order to allow the audience freedom of interpretation he does not name his works but instead numbers them. 6, which featured in Paris Fashion Week 2015, is fast paced; 8 is sensuous and lyrical. The incessant motion of 8 has been choreographed to an intimate score from Chinese indie-folk-rock composer Xiao He, freeing the works of both Eastern and Western cultural motifs and inviting audiences to consider life’s – and the human body’s – limitations and limitlessness.
Dancehouse will present About Kazuo Ohno by Takao Kawaguchi 25-26 February. In this work Kawaguchi reconsiders authorship and artistic freedom by recreating the movements of legendary Butoh dancer Kazuo Ono. About Kazuo Ohno caused a great deal of controversy when it premiered in Tokyo in 2013. Using video recordings of the premiere performances of butoh master Kazuo Ohnoʼs early masterpieces, Kawaguchi attempts to replicate Ohno's movements, as he rejects the traditional concept of 'kata' or 'ideal form' in Japanese traditional aesthetics, and works to fit his body into Ohno's form, "like pouring hot iron into the mold.”
Head to www.asiatopa.com.au for more information about these works, including bookings.
