modern dance Archives | Fusica

Out Now: Le Rêve Album

Fusica — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 12:06:28 +0000

Le Rêve is an album that sprouted from the imagination of the French multi-instrumentalist Arnaud Lechat one Monday afternoon, late 2022. The inspiration was the painting Le Rêve and other work by Henri Rousseau, the fascinating naïve painter in fin-de-siècle / early 1900s Paris. In one inspired flow, Arnaud heard the parts for his own instruments and those I would play or sing. He recorded his own parts that afternoon, one by one as multi-track pieces. Then he invited me to add my own parts, specifying the instruments, moods and such. In a short while, everything fell together wonderfully well. Arnaud arranged the first performance with dancer Zhan Yachun, and several more followed. After those, we created a music-only version of Le Rêve.

When I announced this upcoming album earlier this year, I was in very good spirits about the collaboration with Arnaud. There was the musical click we had had during previous projects, and an intensified click from the music he created for the two of us. We had had frequent contact for over a year about this production, and decided about many issues for the release together. We got close to the stage of pressing the album and needed one final meeting for the last issues regarding the design. And then, all of a sudden, Arnaud was no more.

A big shock.

Our dreams to play this album live vanished. Our dreams for more projects could only remain dreams. The title of the album (which translates as ‘the dream’) haunted me in strange ways. I realised afterwards that the last café where we had met was called Dreamers Coffee. Two days after he left us (and also the day after the gig we had to play without him in Kaohsiung), fate steered me to a café to meet someone, the only option left over. The name? Rêve.

Most of all, it was hard to grasp the reality that someone about my age living a healthy life, died so sudden.

It became clear how Arnaud had touched many people with this generosity and curiosity. He had set up many collaborations, getting the best out of a great variety of people. Some of them did not even consider themselves an artist. Arnaud recognised a talent and created nourishing conditions and used his organising skills so that the talent could emerge, and then merge with his own.

What a privilege it was to know Arnaud, albeit for a few years. And to experience the genesis of a new way to combine improvisation with compositional sketches. Arnaud’s passing is a tremendous loss for the many artists and music lovers, here in the greater Taipei area, and further afield.

Click on the image below to go to Bandcamp to listen,

to buy the physical album

and/or to buy the downloadable audiofiles.

Please note: If you buy / bought Le Rêve through Bandcamp, you use the Bandcamp download function to get your files. Outside Bandcamp (for example when you bought the physical CD), you can use the QR code to go to the Proton-cloud to get your files. If you encounter any problems, let us know and we’ll help you out.

The 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau which inspired Arnaud to write his new work

Recording in progress (photo: Sunny Chen)

The post Out Now: Le Rêve Album appeared first on Fusica.

Le Rêve Album Announcement

Fusica — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 08:01:31 +0000

（中文在下方）

October UPDATE to the original post:

All of a sudden, Arnaud Lechat passed away on September 19, in the midst of many fine projects he was working on. Not long before, Arnaud had launched several websites, one for this album project (https://lerevemusic.tumblr.com/ ), another for our ALLsymt trio.

His widow immediately decided the album should still be released, but we experienced some delays.

We expect the physical album to be ready on November 7, the way Arnaud prepared and intended it.

For now, do not order the album on Arnaud’s Bandcamp while we are sorting out if and how his account there can be continued.

We will soon add a button to buy the album directly and create a new post, but you can also follow the procedure explained below.

It is time to round up some support for our next album project. Below you can read how to suport our album, but first some more on the genesis of this music and dance piece. Over the last 12 months or so I played quite a few iterations of Arnaud Lechat’s wonderful cycle of compositions called Le Rêve, based on the painting by Henri Rousseau. Arnaud recorded his own parts for flutes, percussion and voice on one afternoon, a year ago or so. He sent me the tracks and soon after I came over to play parts on voice, flutes, mouth-harps and effects, the way he had it in mind. It fitted seamlessly so we did several performances with a dancer. Each time it was different. Some things got better, some things failed or were less interesting. Each time we had Zhan Yachun dancing with us.

The new challenge was to play the music without her dancing. We tried several times. Each time it was different, very different. But the shape became sharp. This year on Fools’ Day, we committed our audio-only version to the recording machine of French recording expert Yannick Dauby. The result was beyond our expectation. We are really excited to put this album into the world: for musicians this is always a special process and event. And not without obstacles. I have had long discussions with Arnaud about the question: to print or not to print? Fewer and fewer people have CD players. Even the car, which was the last bulwark of CD players for many people, is changing to audio and video streaming now. For decades – what I say? – for a hundred or more years, selling records was a means of generating an income for musicians.

The 1910 painting by Henri Rousseau which inspired Arnaud to write his new work

With that epoch coming to an end, one of the ‘traditional’ ways for a musician or record label to recuperate the cost of recording, desiging, printing, distributing and promoting an album is challenging. For 20 years or so we enjoyed the ability to record cheaper, in high quality, and produce small print-runs of CDs. But now physical things are harder to sell. Arnaud tried making an album with a beautiful booklet with poems and art work and a download code – no CD inside. It did not work: buyers still wanted a CD, not just the booklet with download code. But as time goes on, even our CDs are selling fewer and fewer at concerts.

And yet, being musicians, produce we must. The physical CD, a digipack or something similar in carton, without booklet, is taking shape (see the top of the message to get an impression of where the design is going at the moment).

Watch an excerpt from one of the live performances we did of this album, when it was still primarily a music & dance performance (which it also will be: we will do sections of Le Rêve in an entirely new setting in the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in september).

I will spare you the details of why and how we came to the conclusion to put out a physical album in 2024. You can read that in my newsletter if you like (sign up if you like). Here is how you can support us, in order of urgency (most urgent support comes first):

1. Pre-order the album in the making from us, so that we can get part of the production cost together instead of investing our savings. Pay to my bank account or Paypal (see below).

2. Pre-order the album when we (Arnaud and Mark) put it on our Bandcamp pages. Bandcamp is a fantastic medium which pays a very large share to musicians. Compared to Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube it is a musician’s heaven, and a place where fans can express their interest in a very concrete way. Bandcamp is right when it claims that “artists receive 80-85% of every dollar a fan spends” and they pay very soon too, not after 6 or 12 months.

3. Buy the album when it is out, from us or from Bandcamp, or at a concert. You might never play the actual CD, we know, but you can get a download code and we can plan our next album, because people like you bought this one!

One last option: if there hides a philantrope in you, if you like to support the arts and other causes, and if you can easily spend some more, consider to pay more than just the album price. Basically, this is like tipping a waiter, or even sponsoring a project. Bandcamp too has this function to pay more than the set price, and in the last two years I noticed every once in a while fans do indeed pay extra! Every bit counts and the gesture itself is already very encouraging. If you pay more than the album price we have more chances to do more promotion, put out more albums, etc. If you want to support in a more substantial way and are interested in return-favors (a dedication in the album sleeve, a concert at home, etc.), please let us know by sending an email.

Pre-order Le Rêve now!

1. Make your choice:

CD with download code € 15,- + worldwide shipping € 10,- = € 25,-

CD with download code € 15,- + europe shipping € 7,- = € 22,-

CD with download code € 15,- + Netherlands shipping € 5,- = € 20,-

CD with download code NT$ 500,- + Taiwan shipping NT$ 80,- = NT$ 580

Ask us for special rates, for example sending to Japan from Taiwan.

2. Choose a payment method:

A. by bank:

M.C. van Tongeren

BIC/Swfit code: ASN BNL21

IBAN: NL50 ASNB0708027512

THE NETHERLANDS

B. by Paypal: use paypals@fusica.nl

3. Let us know you ordered / paid:

Send a message to info@fusica.nl and cc to Hsi-Yin (hsiyin724@gmail.com) with ‘DreamOrder’ in the subject header or title. Make sure to leave your name + full address + phone (optional) and also let us know your banking name / last 3 digits (for Taiwan).

4. In the planned release month September or October we will send you the album as soon as it is out!

Recording in progress

如果你希望像我們這樣的人繼續創作出色的音樂，錄製並推廣給主辦方、給你、給音樂愛好者，那麼你能做的最好的事情就是慷慨支持專輯錄製項目或現場活動。這幾個月來，Arnaud和我都在焦頭爛額，有時感到絕望，完全不知道接下來會怎麼樣。但我們必須這麼做，因為我們相信Arnaud的作品、我們的合作以及其他一些項目的力量。那麼你可以做什麼呢？你可以在不同階段以不同方式支持我們製作的專輯。

當我們（Arnaud和Mark）將專輯放到Bandcamp頁面時預購。Bandcamp是一個非常棒的平台，支付給音樂家的比例非常高。與Apple Music、Spotify和YouTube相比，這是一個音樂家的天堂，也是粉絲可以非常具體地表達他們興趣的地方。Bandcamp聲稱「藝術家獲得粉絲每花費一美元的80-85%」，這是正確的，而且支付非常快，不是6個月或12個月之後。

從我們或Bandcamp或在音樂會上購買。你可能永遠不會播放實體CD，我們知道，但你可以獲得下載碼，這樣我們可以計劃下一張專輯，因為像你這樣的人購買了這一張！最後一個選擇：如果你內心有一個慈善家，喜歡支持藝術和其他事業，而且可以輕鬆地花費更多，考慮支付超過專輯價格的金額。基本上，這就像給服務員的小費，甚至是贊助一個項目。Bandcamp也有這個功能，可以支付超過設定價格的金額，在過去兩年中，我注意到偶爾會有粉絲確實支付額外的金額！每一點都很重要，這一舉動本身就非常令人鼓舞。如果你支付超過專輯價格，我們就有更多的機會進行更多的宣傳，發行更多的專輯等。如果你想以更實質的方式支持，並對回報（如專輯封套上的致謝，家庭演唱會等）感興趣，請通過電子郵件告訴我們。

訂購《Le Rêve》專輯！

CD加下載碼 NT$500 + 台灣運費 NT$80 = NT$580

請向我們詢問特別運費，例如從台灣寄往日本。

選擇付款方式：

銀行：中國信託敦南分行(代號:822)

帳號：163540306745

戶名：MARK CHRISTIAAN VAN TONGEREN

讓我們知道你已訂購/支付：寄信給 mark@fusica.nl 並cc至 Hsi-Yin（hsiyin724@gmail.com），標題或主題欄寫上“DreamOrder”。請務必留下你的姓名+完整地址+電話（可選），並告訴我們你的銀行姓名/最後三位數字（針對台灣）。
我們將把專輯立即寄給你！

The post Le Rêve Album Announcement appeared first on Fusica.

First Voice Yoga Retreat (full report)

Fusica — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:56:07 +0000

At the end of 2019, in fact around the Winter Solstice on December 21, we did the first Voice Yoga Retreat here in Taiwan. A wonderful recollection of the best stuff I have done during my 7 seven years of weekly Voice Yoga classes. It was beyond expectation: fantastic weather, great location, wonderful students, and a great three-person-strong core team (Sunny Chen, Jackal Mei, me) to take care of everything.

Most of all, we all experienced a nice flow between yogic and other exercises, sound and body improvisations, eating cakes and drinking Jackal’s homebrewn coffee, meditating, listening, chanting, learning about my methods and ‘vision.’ People came from all over the place and all walks of life, and most were new to Voice Yoga.

One student, Guang Guang, wrote an excellent report in Chinese about everything we did, in Chinese. I reproduce it here, with an autotranslation at the bottom of this page. Jackal Mei made some great photos, and there’s a couple of myself too. Many thanks to Guang Guang and Jackal for the words and images, and to Sunny !

We’ll do another Voice Yoga Retreat later this year on the beautiful, relaxed East Coast of Taiwan, where the pace is slow, weather seems to be nearly always good, birds sing loudly and the ocean is never far away. Get on the maillinglist for updates.

/聲音瑜伽

因為身旁總是很多優秀的朋友，然後串成一條路徑，一開始是葉子跟我分享聲音，讓我在心裡種下了種子…
於是最近去體驗了一場聲音瑜伽，
授課的老師是教授泛音的馬克
我很喜歡他無私有愛的分享
且關照及感受著每一個我們
當第一堂課說
在這所發出的聲音都是當下要發生的
沒有好壞對錯，每個音都是對的…
讓沒有音感的我感到自在安心
第一個晚上
馬克很自然的就將大家的聲音一起融合在空間裡，讓彼此陌生的夥伴，很快的流動起來，只是短短的兩小時，我全身的細胞都在跳舞

/呼吸練習
在這個練習裡有很多要去感覺的東西，
我也在這個練習去練習感覺
呼吸的快慢，流向哪裡，擴張或收縮…
從沒思考這麼自然發生的事，
但最近這兩次的課程都在提醒著這件事，也就是當下

/母音三角形
很喜歡玩母音三角形
但在這裡面會發現自己的氣很短，
也會想配合其他人
在完美與協調之間理出自己的節奏
呼~吸~
烏~啊~一

/聲音的海洋
隨著模仿到自然而然的發聲，
讓自己的聲音丟進海洋裡
腦海會一直出現森林，池塘，水窪，沼澤，穹蒼，萬物，大地之聲
喜歡靜容分享的，她感覺身體自己發亮的地方想出聲，於是就讓那個聲音自己出來…
好有覺察的身體，我還在練習的路上

/深度聆聽
在戶外一起發聲，
聆聽空間裡擁有的音，跟隨
聆聽沒有的音，創造
在一來一往之間
做成了一首當代音樂
很喜歡這樣融合的旋律

/驚喜
圍一個圈，跟著馬克發出幾個音，
高高低低，閉上眼睛
幾個音沒有規則的發聲練習
然後由慢漸快，
馬克將桑尼推進圈內
在人圈中閉上眼享受旋律
馬克這時唱的越來越快
越來越具體
開始發現事有蹊蹺
打開眼睛望向馬克
他對我笑著示意
宛珍也早領略到了
沒錯，真的是我想的那樣
學員一個接一個笑開
桑尼終於意識到這一趴的別出心裁
流著淚接受大家獻唱
這一刻好感動
好美~好美~

/冬至熄燈
圍著蠟燭一起度過寧靜的夜，閉上眼四週充滿星星的感覺，那些包圍我們的自然之聲，好像墜落在草叢中發亮的星體，發亮的全是萬物的聲音

/薩滿儀式
同學藍師那一夜為大家進行薩滿旅程
第一次體驗儀式，薩滿鼓震出我全身電流，在守護靈的守護之下去感覺這個過程，叢林，速度，黑暗的旋轉，之後竄出來的蛇，最後讓自己慢慢抽離，見到一頭鹿而停止
宛珍被薩滿鼓招喚，以奔跑來流動
阿駱也隨之起舞，整個場域或坐或動
各有各的世界，奇幻世界~

/母音九宮格
深度覺察自己的聲音所在
共振的身體裡，聲音去到了哪裡？
馬克說
身體跟聲音會有共振的地方
但
意念也可以讓聲音去你想要他要去的地方
最後每個人的聲音震動，
都有不同的發現
這讓我覺得聲音太好玩了
每個人的身體感受都如此獨特

/呼吸節奏
呼吸長短的差異，
也能是一首悠揚的曲子
這個章節我也很享受
每個樂器的總和
就是一篇生命的樂章

/泛音獨唱
某個下午，馬克為大家唱歌
坐著，躺著自由
本來是陰天的午後
在一段泛音的旋律不斷繚繞時
我聽見的都是天使的聲音
此時
窗外金色陽光透進粉色的窗簾裡
天使光溫柔的灑在馬克身上發亮
那一個畫面我來不及拍照
但映在我腦海
我全身細胞都在舞蹈

/八部合音
每個人的聲音都好獨特好聽
曙芳的聲音裡有老靈魂的歌唱
想起她的守護靈老奶奶還有愛
輪到發踢卡時
是花神在唱歌吧！！！
清晰亮麗好感動
輪到我的時候，腦袋原本想運作
後來告訴自己算了
讓聲音是什麼就是什麼
雖然知道我聲音都沒到要去的地方
我的聲音之神都在幫我找音階
去了好幾個半音
後來才去到該去的地方
我也是可以說
那是我精準的控制我的半音啦（撥瀏海~

經過三天的玩耍
很鬆很慢也很奇妙的身體各種痠
沒意料只是出聲音而已
身體就有各種拉扯
但記得馨勻說的很好
（可我忘記她具體說什麼了XD）
但她說完我就一陣恍然
拉拉也分享了馬克在機械噪音裡
找出它規律的節奏
讓噪音不只是噪音

三天收穫很多，
也許我是還在餘震之中再慢慢感受
唯一最明白自己的部份
大概就是我還沒那麼放鬆自己吧
畢竟聲音對我來說太陌生
但經過這些過程
更能丟掉小時候對聲音的既定印象
聲音的顏色如此寬廣無限
告訴自己，就是玩，去玩吧！

聲音瑜伽，是瑜伽也是即興
祂不止是聲音，
是能讓心、靈與身體的合一

謝謝Yu Chih Lin帶我池上玩
謝謝Xiaoying Ye聲音的連結
謝謝Jackal Mei意志的邀約XD
謝謝Mark Van Tongeren
帶領著經驗自己的不可思議
讓我在這場聲音之旅中如此盡興…

#課後筆記
#聲音瑜伽
#樂吉昇天
#已被圈粉
#很好玩還要再玩

Autotranslation of the Chinese text.

/ sound yoga

Because there are always many good friends around me, then put into a path. at the beginning, the leaves share the voice with me, and let me plant seeds in my heart…
So recently, I went to experience a sound yoga,
The teacher who taught is the mark of the pan-Yin.
I love his selfless and loving sharing
And take care and feel every one of us
When the first class said
The voices made here are all about the moment.
There is no bad right or wrong, every voice is right…
Let me feel free to feel at ease
First night
Mark is very natural to mix everyone’s voices together in space, let each other’s strange partner, quickly flowing, just two hours, my whole body is dancing.

/ breathing practice
A lot of things to feel in this practice,
I am also practicing to practice the feeling
Where to breathe, where to go, expand or shrink…
Never thought about what happened so naturally,
But these two recent courses are reminding this thing, that is the moment.

/ vowel triangle
Love to play with the vowel triangle
But I will find myself very short in this,
Will also want to work with other people
Make your own rhythm between perfection and coordination
Oh ~ suck ~
Oh ~ Ah ~ one

/ the ocean of sound
With the imitation of a natural voice,
Let your voice be thrown into the ocean
The Forest, the pond, the water, the swamp, the swamp, the sky, everything, the sound of the earth.
Who likes to share quietly, she feels like she’s shiny, so let the voice come out on her own…
So conscious body, I’m still on my way to practice

/ deep listening
Voice together in the outdoors,
Listen to the sound of the space and follow
Listen to the sound of not, create
In the way.
Made a contemporary music
I love this fusion melody.

/ surprise
Surround a circle and make a few voices with Mark,
Close your eyes and close your eyes
A few sounds without rules
Then slowly,
Mark puts the nissan into the circle
Close your eyes in the circle and enjoy the melody
Mark is singing faster and faster
Getting more and more specific
Starting to find something wrong
Open your eyes and look at mark
He smiled at me
She has already learned it early.
Yes, it’s really what I thought
The students laugh at one after one.
Mulberry finally realized the chú le of this party
I am in tears to accept everyone’s singing
This moment is so touching
So beautiful ~ so beautiful ~

/ Winter Solstice Lights out
Surround the candles with a peaceful night, close your eyes with the feeling of stars, the sound of nature that surround us, like the stars that have fallen in the grass, the sound of everything.

/ sana ceremony
Classmate Blues on the night for you all the night
First experience ceremony, the sana drum burst out my whole body current, under the protection of the guardian spirit, I felt the process, the jungle, the speed, the dark spin, then the snake that came out, finally let myself slowly pull away, see one Deer stop
Lithuania was called by the drum of the drum to run
It also dance, the whole field, sitting or moving.
Every world, fantasy world ~

/ vowel
I am deeply aware of my voice.
Where did the sound go in the resonance body?
Mark said
Where the body and the sound will be resonance
But but
Ideas can also let the voice go where you want him to go
At the end everyone’s voice shakes,
All have different discoveries
This makes me think the voice is so funny
Everyone’s body feels so unique

/ breathing rhythm
The difference in the length of breathing,
Can also be a beautiful song
I’m enjoying this chapter too
The sum of each instrument
It’s a movement of life.

/ Pan-voice solo
One afternoon mark singing for everyone
Sitting and lying free
It was a cloudy afternoon.
While a pan-Tone Melody keeps on the these
All I hear is the voice of an angel
Right now
The Golden sunshine outside the window goes through the pink curtains
Angel Light gentle on mark
I didn’t have time to take pictures of that one
But in my mind
My whole body is dancing

/ eight sound
Everyone’s voice is so unique and nice
There is the singing of the old soul in the voice of the old soul
Thinking of her guardian spirit grandma and love
It’s my turn to kick the card.
Is the flower God singing!!!
Clear and beautiful, so touching
When it was my turn, my head wanted to work
Later I told myself to forget it
What makes the voice is what is
Even though I know my voice is not even where I’m going
My Voice God is helping me find the level
Went for a couple of semitone
I just went to the place where I should go.
I can say too
That’s my precision in control of my semitone (allocated ~

After three days of playing
Very Loose, slow and amazing body all kinds of sour
I didn’t expect it. It was just a voice.
The body has all kinds of pull
But remember that Xin Xin said very well
(but I forgot what she said XD)
But after she said, I just had a moment.
Lala also shared mark in mechanical noise
Find out the rhythm of its regular rhythm
Make noise not just noise

Harvest a lot in three days,
Maybe I’m still in the aftershocks and feel slowly
The only part that knows what I know most
Probably I’m not that relaxing myself yet
The voice is too strange to me after all
But after these process
It’s better to lose the established impression of the voice in my childhood
The Color of the voice is so wide and infinite
Tell yourself, it’s just to play, go play!

Sound Yoga is yoga and impromptu
He is more than a voice,
Is the one that makes the heart, spirit and body

Thank you Yu Chih Lin for taking me on the pool
Thank you Xiaoying Ye for the link
Thank you Jackal Mei for the invitation XD
Thanks Mark Van Tongeren
Leading the experience of my experience
Had me so much fun on this sound tour…

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Taiwan Tour 聽舞觀聲/Lending Ear to Dance, Eye to Sound

Fusica — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 07:39:51 +0000

Taipei Dance Circle (光環舞集) continues to bring their piece Lending Ear to Dance, Eye to Sound to theatres across Taiwan. I will join them in one of the three choreographies. Read more about our collaboration and co-founder Liu Shaolu in a previous post here.

Program: “Lending Ear To Dance, Eye To Sound” 聽舞觀聲

Dancers:

姚凱蕾 Yao Kai-Lei
蕭靈鳳 Siew Lin-Fong
王憲彬 Wang Hsien-Pin
陳英豪 Chen Ying-Hao

Tour to:

Taidong

Saturday 3/5 19:30
Performance Hall of Taitung County Government Bureau of Cultural Affair

Taichung

Wednesday 3/23 19:00
Providence University Zhi Shan Hall Stadium

Tamshui (Saturday May 1, to be confirmed)

Hsinchu
Saturday 5/27 19:30
Performance Hall of Cultural Bureau, Hsinchu County

Sanxia

Saturday 6/18 19:30
Performing hall of Xinzhuang Culture and Arts Center

Yingge

Friday 9/23 13:00

Yingge Technical High School

Read a Taipei Times article about the program here.

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December 5/6: Nordic by Ming-Hwa Yeh

Fusica — Fri, 04 Dec 2015 03:18:34 +0000

We are embarking on an epic journey this weekend in a 3-hour multi-media/dance performance entitled Nordic, created and choreographed by Ming-Hwa Yeh. Nordic is part of the 3-week festival Points on Stage at Songyue Lab, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. We began working on this piece in autumn 2014, and presented a work-in-progress in December 2014, with dancer En Chen, who now joined Cloudgate and is replaced by Wu-kang Chen.

Ming-Hwa writes:

“Nordic is a work inspired by Natural, the moment I was moved and shaken by the unlimited power of nature, the unity of man and nature. Human beings live in the realm of nature, we are constantly surrounded by it and interact with it. But somehow in the busy bustling life, we are so easily to forget.”

The current version of Nordic is a long, immersive meditation on this relationship between man and nature. Its dramatic arch moves between extremes of the quiet and un-spectacular (like a vast landscape with nothing much happening but a gently blowing breeze) and bursts of activity, overpowering and aggresive (like an avalanche). Much revolves around the deep structures of human experience throughout its evolution: those of space and time. It confronts us with the naked, and sometimes perplexing truths of our lives unfolding in time, and our bodies moving in space.

The spectators move freely in the space: they can walk, stand, sit or lie down as they like. The music is partly electronic, created by SHENG, partly live, by Mark van Tongeren, on voice and various instruments. Video forms an integral part of several sections of the performance and was created by Adrianne Chiu.

Choreographer/ Ming-Hwa Yeh
Performer/ Ming-Hwa Yeh, Wu-kang Chen, Mark van Tongeren, 晟│SHENG
Stage Designer/ Yu-Ting Tung
Lighting Designer/ Kuo-chien Hung
Video Designer/ Adrianne Chiu

Time｜12/5(六) 16:00、12/6(日)16:00
Where｜Songshan Cultural and Creative Park /LAB創意實驗室(東向製菸工廠2樓)
Tickets｜NT $500 (http://ppt.cc/Ctkdm) or (http://goo.gl/forms/kMOQwPiZB7)

編舞/概念葉名樺
戲劇顧問鄒之牧
演出者葉名樺、陳武康、Mark van Tongeren、晟│SHENG
人聲泛唱 Mark van Tongeren
裝置設計董育廷
音樂設計晟│SHENG
燈光設計郭建宏
影像設計 Adrianne Chiu
聲音技術杜易昂
視覺攝影李欣哲
演出紀錄陳冠宇
專案行政陳春春
陪伴創作顧問高俊宏（視覺藝術家）

活動場次｜12/5(六) 16:00、12/6(日)16:00
活動地點｜LAB創意實驗室(東向製菸工廠2樓)
參加辦法｜購票入場，票價500元，兩廳院之友、學生9折。
購票網址｜http://www.artsticket.com.tw/CKSCC200…

*宣傳片拍攝剪輯陳冠宇

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Lending Ear to Dance, Eye to Sound

Fusica — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 19:42:35 +0000

This week Taipei Dance Circle (光環舞集) presents a new evening program with three new pieces, a little over a year after founder Liou Shaw-lu (劉紹爐) passed away. I got to know Shaw-lu over a decade ago when I was teaching at the Taipei National University of the Arts in Kuandu, not far from Taipei Dance Circle’s base in Bali, on the opposite side of the Tamshui river. These classes were organised by Prof. Chung Mingder, then dean of the Department of Theatre, and attracted also people from outside the university (artists outside the school like Shaw-lu, or nuns from the Huayen monastery). To anyone who knew Shaw-lu it is needless to say I immediately I liked him: he was such a likable, positive soul, constantly curious, constantly creative, or ‘creating’ to say it more actively. When I see him with my mind’s eye, I see him moving: moving his hands, his head, his torso, expressing whatever he wanted to say or responding to whatever he saw with his full body. And of course, he did not just move: he always moved beautifully, elegantly, from somewhere deep inside himself, and at the same time summoning forces much bigger than himself. He absorbed the environment and reflected it back with his body, with his mind and also with his voice. He was very passionate about learning to use the voice in new ways. He felt and saw from the perspective of dance, what I felt and saw from the perspective of music: the possibility of integrating sound and body.

Shaw-La, taimu, Mark some 10 years ago

He followed my classes, but of course I learned as much from him. His presence as a dancer helped me feel comfortable to do all kinds of unusual physical exercises in order to experiment with the sound of the voice. I remember we rehearsed and performed a piece when the semester of the ‘official’ theatre class (I think it was called Overtone singing and Meditation) was about to finish. All students presented their own work, and I did a piece with Shaw-lu. It was a delight to improvise with him, even though I felt quite clumsy doing the physical work next to someone so flexible, so much in a constant, physical flow. Shao-lu and I also presented something together at Huayen Monastery, who at that time were interested in the integration of overtones in body-mind practices.

It was a great honour for me to receive the invitation from Taipei Dance Circle’s co-founder Maura Yang earlier this year, to collaborate with the dancers now that co-founder and choreographer Shaw-lu passed away. A challenge, too, since we all started work on integrating movement and sound: the piece we created, involves all four dancers and myself on stage, doing both sound and movement. After throwing ourselves into each other territories (they singing/sounding, me dancing/moving), we found it necessary to take a step back and stay more within our own disciplines. It is a long and difficult, but rewarding process to move out of your comfort-zone: I think we all shifted into this new territory, and we are searching still for the right mode. Tonight is the première, but the last adjustments are still being made.

In Last year’s dance projects I did with Horse (驫舞劇場: Play Dead / 裝死) and then with Yeh Ming Hwa (葉名樺 : Nordic / 寂靜敲門), I was first purely a musician, onstage but separated from the dancers, then a musician/actor sharing the space with the dancers Will that turn out to be the better option? I hope both are possible, though there is no doubt that these three pieces are a world apart.

Yeh Ming-Hwa’s piece Nordic (Photo Lee Hsin-Che)

In order to commemorate Shaw-lu, we are singing a Hakka song. As Yao Kai-Lei (姚凱蕾) one of the dancers of TDC, explained today for Hakka TV, Shaw-lu loved old Hakka mountain songs, which used to be sung not as concert pieces, but in daily life by the tea planters in the old days. Hakka people just sang them while working, sometimes over long distances in the mountains, improvising phrases (and no doubt, also texts). I am not sure Shaw-lu actually heard that when he was young …. But taimu (Prof Chung) encouraged us to sing old songs in this project, and since many of the songs that we tried would not work for the group as a whole, it was natural to chose Lao Shan Ge (old mountain song).

About the other vocal parts, I wrote this for the program booklet:

In Western art music and dance, sound and movements are rigorously controlled by what they present and what is taught, from one generation to the next. Not only that; it is also controlled by what is not presented, by that which is controlled by expelling it. Musicians are basically taught to play their instrument from a still position, and not to make unwanted movements. The accepted movements that we see from a pianist or violinist are highly stylised and may be likened to a kind of choreography. Many musicians and dancers alike were taught not only to control their movements but also to suppress the sounds that might accompany those movements. The presence of unwanted sounds almost amounts to a taboo, both for dancers and for musicians. There may be valid practical and also esthetic reasons for it, but are we not robbing dancers or musicians of some of their most powerful means of expression when we subjugate the performing body to these unwritten rules? What do we find, for example, when we allow the performing body to freely make noise, make sound, make music, and when we allow the musicking body to move or to dance?

These questions are not new, and have been explored from various angles in the past decades, not in the least in many of the late works of Liu Shao Lu, who was deeply committed to integrating sound with movement. Yet unwritten performance rules run deep in the veins of artists, be they musicians or dancers. It is hard for the dancer to work the muscles of the vocal cords and mouth just like she is used to work the muscles of torso, arms and legs. And it is hard for the musician to really see himself moving, and to move freely beyond the need of musical gestures. Trained in one art form, we are partly blinded by the aesthetic language we are most familiar with. How can we re-integrate these two seemingly different languages of dance and music with each other? Can we find some more or less natural meeting points? Is it even possible, perhaps, to really ‘forget’ our own disciplines and create something from a common bodily language, becoming sound and movement at the same time?

Program: “Lending Ear To Dance, Eye To Sound” 聽舞觀聲

Dancers:

姚凱蕾 Yao Kai-Lei
蕭靈鳳 SIEW LIN-FONG
王憲彬 WANG HSIEN-PIN
陳英豪 Chen Ying-Hao

Five performances tonight until Sunday (Sept 10-13) in Experimental Theatre 實驗劇場 / National Theatre 國家戲劇院

Tickets here.

After that: tour to HsinChu (October 16), New Taipei City (November 8), Taoyuan City (November 14) Pingtung City (November 21), Hsinchu county (November 28).

Read a Taipei Times about the new program article here.

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Playdead with Horse dance company

Fusica — Mon, 02 Mar 2015 06:58:51 +0000

2014年1+1雙舞作
驫舞劇場《裝死》+ 周先生與舞者們《看得見的城市，看不見的人》
1+1 Dance
HORSE《Playdead》+ Shu-Yi & Dancers《Visible and Invisible》

(Chinese info below)

Since autumn of 2013 Shih-Yang Lee, Yu-Long Chen and myself are working with the experimental dancers of Horse. The performance will be showing in the National Theater in Taipei beginning of May, together with another show by Shu-Yi and Dancers. There was a press event last week, and I just heard the first performance is already sold out, and there are less than 90 tickets for the second one. So don’t wait to order your tickets if you want to see something special!

May 9, 19:30 and May 10, 14:30

National Theatre, Taipei.

演出時間：5/10(六)19:30、5/11(日)14:30

Find all the information here.

See a preview here.

Horse on Facebook.

Buy your tickets here

演出地點：國家戲劇院

=====================================

驫舞劇場陳武康
《裝死》

儀式的終了，人生直如一副微縮後的冷暖光影。

在《裝死》中，於紐約舞台設計師Mimi Lien所闢出的活且多變的空間裡，陳武康以其獨樹一幟的編舞風格，創作出調性詼諧的人生即景。現場，由音樂家李世揚帶領的樂團，引領出一幕幕繁複的視覺聲響畫面，舞蹈的脈動自節奏而生，止於儀式的終了，人生直如一副微縮後的冷暖光影。

人哪，彼此依靠，心跳和體溫是共同分享的撫慰；
在社會化的練習裡，符應你的腳本，裝扮，
兼演人群中的面孔，為我們舞台風景上的另一種現實。

別急著嘔出胃裡的罪惡，請在我的墳上款款，搖擺，
因為我們終將在長戴這副妝容的那一天，同歸於人間歡慶墮落的集合。

不為呼告而來，這場儀式我們用舞蹈謳歌。

編舞：陳武康
共同創作/表演：林文中、黃庭君、黃懷德、葉名樺、劉冠詳、劉奕伶、鄭皓、蘇威嘉
音樂總監：李世揚
音樂創作/現場樂手：李世揚、陳昱榮、Mark van Tongeren
技術總監/舞台監督：劉家明
舞台設計：Mimi Lien
服裝設計：吳依儒
燈光設計：陳昭郡
技術設計：楊金源

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