Tao Dance Theater – 4 & 9

TAO Dance Theater – 4 & 9

This is the third piece of choregrapher Tao Ye’s ‘Numerical Series’, builds upon Weight x 3 and 2 in its characteristically meticulous reflection on the human body as a pure and symbolic creative element. Technically pioneering notwithstanding, 4 inherits the minimalistic outlook from its predecessors, and excavates still deeper layers of a new body-texture aesthetic.

As four dancers, standing in a diamond formation, whirl and slice simultaneously through a shared, external space and each of thier own internal, private space, an orderly flow of transformations emerges from the dynamic picture. The four dancers never touch, but a powerful and seemingly magnetic sense of inity condenses itself around the mesmerizing, intersubjectively coordinated movements. It is as if a demonstration of the conservation of energy and the ultimate process of becoming depleted are contained in the dancers’ rhythmic and cyclical shifting of body weight in their uniform and circular movements.

This new work seeks to assemble or perhaps override the progressive order of the Numerical Series. 9 will seek origin through a series of ‘chaos’. The number 9 is significant in Chinea’s cultural context -representing the adversities, limitations, and final revisit of one’s origin. 9 in relation to the completed works in the Numerical Series, will be an explosiion of previously accumulated vocabularies and also a consummation of all conceptual undertakings of the entire series.

9 is a crucial turning point in the Numerical Series -whether it be a finale or the reset of the creation. Performed with nine dancers, 9 presents a relationship between complexity and simplicity.