Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

In the current world of dance, with its tendencies towards narrative and issue-oriented works, to have a piece of dance like this that makes its departure from pure dance, and solely through dance becomes the focus of attention for audience for an entire evening, is extraordinary. The dance's vocabulary takes taichi as its point of departure, and as the piece progresses it takes on Western vestments to present a timely examination. The entire piece is imbued with the spirit of modern dance, filled with modern dance's impressionistic interpretations and poignant fluency. In recent memory, this fine piece is a rare example of modern abstraction possessed of a vocabulary of movement that is both complete and extensive. Committee member: Jhih-Mu ZOU

Artwork Introduction

Chun-Hsien WU choreographed Reflex. It was performed by four female dancers from his dance company Double C at the Experimental Theatre on May 16, 2008.

Wu created Reflex in 2006. Wu was inspired by his newborn son, in particular, by the infant's movements and the baby's modes of discovering the exciting new world around him. Reflex's simple concept conveyed indirectly through the dancers' movements is to remind ourselves to be fresh to life like a newborn, while the core concept is the tension between instinct and learned reaction. The dance features original ideas and movements along with music created for the piece. The movements are derived from daily life and transformed into poetic dance movements.

The human body is equipped with a protection-movement mechanism, the reflexes. Reflexes are movements which entirely escape conscious control and are governed by the nervous system. Reflex included the contradictory ways that small children and adults move and respond to their surrounding environment. The dance enacted some of these instinctual reflexes combined with acquired movements which are learned.

The original music created by Christoph IACONO included recorded excerpts of Wu's infant son and the dancers' voices that provided a dreamy introspective score, while the dancers' white costumes against a black light and minimal stage set a strong emotional tone. The stage design included arrows which symbolized following orders and stripes that signified splashing water and the instinctual response to avoid being splashed.

About the Artist

Dancer and choreographer Chun-HsienWU graduated from the National Institute of Art in Taipei. During 1994 to 2000, Wu was soloist at the Cloud Gate Dance Theater. In 1998, he was invited to participate in the 25th Anniversary of Pina Bausch Wuppertal Tanztheater where he met his future wife, dancer Chrystel GUILLEBEAUD. Based in Wuppertal, they formed Double C and collaborated on various dance projects since 2000. Their new production We'll all go to heaven examines energies and conflicts that are manifested in relationships; however, Wu's and Guillebeaud's choreographic focus is on intercultural meaning rather than gender difference.

)、Till Bruhne (舞台)