Live orchestra meets circus and dance: Adventures of Peter and the Wolf

National Symphony Orchestra x Dance Forum Taipei
Grand Theater, Taipei Performing Arts Center
March 21, 2026

In 2021, the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra (國家交響樂團, NSO) joined forces with Dance Forum Taipei (舞蹈空間) for a collaboration featuring ballet music from Saint-Saëns’ operas. Now they come together once more for Adventures of Peter and the Wolf (彼得與狼的奇幻冒險), dance concert directed by Fangas Nayaw (陳彥斌) with choreography by Tung I-fen (董怡芬) that brims with imagination and delight from start to finish.

While the essence and spirit of the traditional story very much remains with Peter still a bright and resourceful child, this is a Peter and the Wolf with a few differences. The narrative is not the usual straightforward tale of the triumph of good over evil or of Peter venturing into the forest against his grandfather’s warnings, encountering then capturing the wolf, although he does venture on a magical journey.

Danced in front of the orchestra, seated on an upstage raised platform, the story instead follows Peter on a trip through stage and lighting designer Channel Huang’s (黃申全) mysterious fantasy house where he meets four sprites, then various landscapes, all conjured up with a large piece of fabric and some excellent lighting. Along the way, he does meet the various animals and characters of the traditional story, some only briefly, but always in unexpected ways.

Prokofiev’s well-known score is supplemented by the insertion of the movements from his Symphony No.1 (Classical) at various times. The fusion, a result of discussions between conductor Wu Yao-yu (吳曜宇) and Tung has been done very sympathetically and works rather well throughout. The third movement gavotte, recognisable to ballet lovers as the usual music heard as the guests arrive for the ball in Romeo and Juliet, makes for a fine overture, for example.

Danced by a female but cleverly presented in a gender-neutral way, Peter is absolutely a youngster of today. Aided by Tung’s pitch-perfect choreography, Lin Si-qi (林思綺) captures the essence of the character beautifully. Just as one expects this Peter is curious, impulsive, resourceful, ingenious and a little brave at times too. All in all, very appealing and impossible not to like.

It’s not long before that magical house appears, waved on by the conductor. It’s here that we first meet the mischievous sprites played by Chang Chi-wu (張琪武), Yeh Chin-cheng (葉晉誠), Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) and You Yi-lin (游沂霖). The quartet later double up as wolves.

With hinged sides and a slatted fabric front through which arms, legs and heads appear, the house allows for all sorts of possibilities and is used to the full. There are many gently humorous moments such as when it appears Peter suddenly has arms and legs several metres long. When legs appear and sweep like oars through water, it just has to be the duck.

The huge fabric later forms a screen for a snatch of shadow puppetry and the silhouette of the grandfather, before, with the help of the sprites, becoming a dangerous rolling sea, a green forest, mountains and, most ingenious of all, a cave, into which our hero naturally cannot stop himself going.

Tung I-fen (董怡芬) also brings in Lan Yi-yun (藍翊云) and Mei Chih-ling (梅芷菱) from contemporary circus company Eye Catching Circus (創造焦點), introducing aerial silks, hoops and acrobatics into the tale. They certainly live up their company’s name. One of the show’s best moments comes when they join the Dance Forum Taipei performers in a fabulously busy dance with hoops that sees them swirled around bodies so fast that they become little more than colourful blurs. The scene also includes so impressive hoop juggling by Lan. She and Mei subsequently thrill on an aerial hoop where it’s impossible not to see them as birds, before Mei excites in a solo on aerial silk. Both had the audience gasping.

Adventures of Peter and the Wolf ends with no triumphant procession, no Peter leading the hunters and the now captured wolf, although there is a vibrant ensemble dance. After that, though, it fades away quietly, and rather beautifully, in some ways giving the sense that it might have been a dream, to another dash of Symphony No.1.

Apart from the super dancing and circus, the NSO were their usual excellent selves, although it did feel that the sound was a little muffled, perhaps a consequence of the staging. But how nice to have the musicians in full view rather than hidden away in a pit.

I will admit to never really having got on with dance productions of Peter and the Wolf, which tend to stick closely to the traditional story and be rather childlike in nature. But the NSO and Dance Forum Taipei’s version is quite much the exception to the rule. It really is a delightful hour that will amuse and delight young and old alike. It’s the sort of collaboration between performing arts ensembles that there should be more of. The many children in the audience (and how good to see that) left with big smiles. This one too!