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“born somewhere, live somewhere.”
Reina KIMURA left her hometown and came to Tokyo. She had not got used to live in a big city for a long time. In the unfamiliar life, she got interested in changes of the body by environment or language (dialect) and the state of people’s existence. This interest is one of the starting points of this work.

This work is constructed by dancers who come from the different hometown, Osaka, Hyogo, Oita, Aomori etc. And this work uses words (dialect) as one tool constituting a work. Reina and dancers try how changes a body, the consideration of the choreography, a work by migrating (changing environment) and residents. For previous five years, they continued and developed this work while changing a place, Kobe, Aomori, Kanagawa, Tokyo, Kinosaki (they lived 2 months).The work which continues to change as the life goes on.

The work was premiered in 2013.

“one◆piece”

One of Co. Un Yamada’s earliest pieces originally premiered with five female dancers in 2004, it has been reproduced with all-male dancers after ten years of its production history in 2014.

The futuristic sound is composed specially for this piece by Satoru Wono- an acclaimed cutting-edge music director and composer of Japanese music scene. This performance, “one ◆ piece” is crafted for the finest five of Co. Un Yamada dancers while choreographer Yamada brings the best out of each dancer and presents them on stage filled with bright white dance mat. That the audience will keep her eyes open not to miss a moment is undeniably happening.

“So Low”

Shoved and dislocated, I was squeezed
I keep searching for my refuge on the time-space slideway
Does it really exist, that existence under siege

“in,visible (cities);”
City, memory, desire, symbols, names, death, sky…..departing from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, between the visible and invisible walls and gaps, the body saunters the virtual cities and writes Marco Polo’s travel journal with programming language. In this work, people reside in bow-like space (the city) and transit between boxes of various sizes. What connects these boxes? Questioning the text, the body, the new media, Siri, Google, and so on…

The development of science and technology leads to the tendency of the different senses of the body, the human behavior is simulated, the simulation of all the actual situation. Senses are constantly being consumed, where can you find the authenticity of body?

“Here is it”
Inspired by a live rock show that the band members have infinite freedom, and they’re enjoying it. Breaking free of all life’s struggles, throwing away those shallow facades, hypocrisies and pretensions. The most genuine attitude of those of our age towards the world manifests itself in that very moment. Perhaps the elements that are about to happen on stage, at one point in the past or future, are truths tucked away in the depths of our heart.

Presents in the 1970s style and uses different types of dance, including modern dance, Chinese folk dance, hip-hop, jazz and other elements of rock music with three boys daily conversation.

“Nook”
What is the possibility of a relationship?
What is the pursuit of a relationship?

“Jo (Kaohsiung)”
Jo is Chien Lin-yi’s first creation to back to Taiwan. To rediscover his body how leavening by his native culture and what he saw in Japan. From Chinese title, it also is a metaphor for one person how to wake by an unstable position in a limitary square. This piece pays reverence for Jo Kanamori, his mentor and friend.

“Watcher (Kaohsiung)”
Raining in the room was reviewed by Diane Baker from Taipei Times “Hung-Chung Lai comes into his own”.
The inspiration for this piece is based on The Greek mythology “Argus “. The movements were derived from Eastern movement techniques to portray the trials and tribulations of Watcher.

Argus was described as a 100-eyed giant who had the ability to keep a few eyes open, even asleep, he was always alert. Argus had to slay Echidna, who is a servant to Hera, goddess of woman and marriage, the snake-legged monster and guard “Lo”, the cow that is tied to a sacred tree. However, as “Lo” was in league with Zeus, Zeus then ordered Hermes to disguise himself as a shepherd, to enchant Argus to sleep then taking all of his eyes to kill him.

Watcher is inspired by the story of Argus. Everyone has their weaknesses and sometimes it is not easy to see clearly their surroundings, As the Chinese proverb says, “on-lookers see more than the players”. People need a little guidance to help them see the truth, only then they will be able to trust more and protect the ones they love.

“Tschüss!! Bunny (Taipei)”
While the Self deals with its decease by the past of time, should it accept the new I, or be constantly battling with it? Could conflicts between them be another kind of presentation of maintaining the connection? Or it simply creates the rivalry?

“Death” and “goodbye” to create the main concept of the dance, showing that perhaps death can be another form of rebirth.The main character of the dance is based on the similar sounds of the two terms, expressing the attitudes and philosophy of life when confronting parting and rebirth.Who are we saying goodbye to? What does the bunny represent in the dance? What are we being resentful for, being sorrowful for or even fighting for? Can we find any peace within? looking for a solution to everything the only approach for survival? Or perhaps when encountering the time pass, we would also be able to transit?

Who is the Self that we are departing from? What kind of I are we becoming? What things in life that we really need to say goodbye to? Or is saying goodbye to the old Self simply a manner of ours to make fun of the present?

“The Sacrifice of Roaring (Kaohsiung)”
The Observer Selected by Judith Mackrell in “Three of the best dance performance this week” in Edinburgh Fringe 2016.
Fires burn, ashes rise and flesh falls into the mud. Something wild is marching through the land, accompanied by the endless screaming of spirits. Inspired by Taiwanese rituals related to mortality and resurrection, the young firebrand choreographer Hsu Chen Wei and company reveal the human need to release all the pain in their lives to the gods. The result is the dance that is at once mysterious yet vivid, unexpectedly seductive and vital. A curtain silently closes as the wind howls across an abandoned shrine, and life carries on…

The irresistible Korean wave in contemporary dance

“Body, dancing, technique… overpower the audience!” Yeongnamilbo, Korea

When it comes to contemporary dance scene in Korea, Hong Seung-yup should be the first name to remember. His ability to craft dance movement is described as unique. Together with his gift in expressing human introversion, his beautiful productions have brought him international awards.

Hong Seung-yup leads Daegu Contemporary Dance Company to Hong Kong with “Moon-Looking Dog“ and “I Saw the Elephant”. “Moon-Looking Dog” was invited to Lyon Dance Biennale of France in 2000, seeking the inner self within the modern identity; “I Saw the Elephant” questions the nature of thing, urging the reuse of mind’s eye. DCDC will visit Hong Kong for the first time, presenting the beauty of contemporary Korean culture in a night!

Jo Kanamori, the Artistic Director of Noism1 and choreographer of NINA – materialize sacrifice, studies how one might produce an energy strong enough to give a sense of the beauty and power to a body before it moves in space, and explores how to create a body which would absorb the energy of the floor and would not fall even when being pushed. French born Vietnamese composer An Tôn Thất creates a compact music with mechanical sound and hammering percussion, together with the mysterious dim stage light, the piece transpires a sense of thrilling tension. The female dancers’ bodies are stiff like robots with no facial expression, yet their movement is sharp, fast and skillfully controlled, contrasting to the powerful but arbitrary manipulation of the male dancers.

Acclaimed as a “compelling work”, NINA has toured to many cities including Paris, Moscow, Washington, Seoul and Taipei.

Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2017

Top Chinese choreographer Helen Lai and veteran stage actor Lee Chun-chow decipher the music of Shostakovich together. Don’t miss out on the return of this seminal classic!

Regarded as a music giant during the Soviet period, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was a pioneer and spiritual leader of the music circle, giving voice to the revolutionary socialism at that time. Unfortunately, under Stalin’s orthodoxy, he became the enemy of the people and faced harsh political persecution. Feigning compliance with the government, Shostakovich embedded his resentment and rebellion against the government into his music.

Inspired by Testimony, the controversial memoirs of Shostakovich, Helen Lai presents an unprecedented fusion of dance, music, moving image and theatre. The Hong Kong Drama Awards Best Actor Lee Chun-chow returns to join in this pioneering dance theatre, playing the Russian composer, Shakespeare’s tragic characters as well as funny man in Chaplin’s slapstick style of silent movies, weaving between dance, music and drama.

“FROM IN”

“I very much admired Xie Xin’s choreography . In her style, I see features that you might not find in European contemporary dance. The extreme sensitivity and subtlety of Xie Xin has the same uniqueness as Sankai Juku”
Mr Uotinen, Finland Kuopion dance festival director of the art festival

As human beings, one of the reasons we share memories with each other is that we meet at the same moment in the same space, which creates a special link. Without this, we are just living parallel lives in different spaces.

“Silentium”
The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence. It may be the soundlessness after a long battle with oneself, or turning a blind eye to oneself.

“Flight”
As a wing, you and I take off for a goal. We finally approach the perfect flight.

We experience countless successes and failures to achieve our goals. Sometimes we fall, other times we exhaust ourselves. But in time, we slowly find ourselves flying towards our goals. Using the action of leap and jump, “Flight” depicts how we take off for our goals. As humans cannot fly alone, the limitation is overcome by two people achieving an impeccable flight.

“Mind-Goblin”
We are overly engrossed in the mixed blessings of life and become all tense in an era of intertwined values and of overlapping relationships. As a sense of negativeness, desire, destruction and deviation settle within our minds and bodies, goblins start to dance. However, goblins only grow with our efforts to hide or push them away, while our minds and bodies wither away.

Transition is imperative. A transition acknowledging the fact that negativeness is a precondition for positiveness; desire is another expression of a dream; destruction is a prerequisite of order; and deviation is another path for an orbit.

Acknowledging that conflicting element (xiangke: mutual overcoming) is not subject to removal but is rather an element for coexistence (xiangsheng: mutual generation).

To that end, I set up a stage for the goblins in my mind and body. I freely exhibit the goblins within me, those that I had oppressed and hid; and meet and appreciate the other ‘me’ inside me. And we all have an exhilarating and splendid time. Just like in the old stories, where people met goblins and danced all night. I aim to understand that my mind and body is a small universe of its own, and to fully appreciate the beauty of the diversity coexisting and creating that universe.