Of what it is to be human: Being (S) duo by Wang Yeu-kwn

Experimental Theater, National Theater, Taipei
April 17, 2026

The scrunched-up huge sheet of paper seems to float in the darkness. It looks like a huge rock, or perhaps more a misshapen lump of ice that creaks and crumples as it unfolds.

Being (S) duo (捺撇 duo) by Wang Yeu-kwn (王宇光), founder and artistic director of Shimmering Production (微光製造) has come a long way since its initial appearance as Beings in 2020. First a short work, little more than a sketch, to a fully-fledged piece, one that has been performed around the world with great success, including as a finalist in the 2025 Rose Dance Prize in London. And now extended to fifty minutes as Being (S) (duo) (捺撇 duo): two duets, two generations, both similar in many ways, but also very different.

The whole work is inspired by the Chinese character ren (人) and reflects the intimate relationship between its two supporting calligraphy strokes and now, two couples, first Wang and Lee Yin-ying (李尹櫻), then Ku Ming-shen (古名伸) and Su An-li (蘇安莉). And then there’s set designer Chen Guan-lin’s (陳冠霖) huge sheet of rice paper, in many ways the third being in the work, and the ink that later flows, staining it and the human performers.

In some ways it is a work of great artistic simplicity. But it’s also a work of considerable depth. As the dancers unfold and refold rice paper, the dance is highly evocative and sensual. Being (S) duo is also a work of great beauty, helped hugely by Wang always taking his time. Nothing here is rushed.

When the paper first unfolds, watched silently by the so still Wang, another image comes to mind, that of a giant origami flower opening, with revealed at its heart. The Tennessee Waltz is the last music you expect to hear, but that’s precisely what takes over. The close-up gestural dance, the pair standing chest to chest, mimes wonderfully the rhythms of the music.

A later duet is slower, quite intricate and almost meditative. It comes with a lot of weight giving and taking. Time and again, the shape created by the two performers is reminiscent of the ren (人) symbol. There’s a huge feeling of support for one another in the psychological sense too. And a lot of care. As they dance, the rice paper, and the dancers’ bodies, slowly becomes streaked with black ink that leaves traces of their presence after they have left.

The duet ends surprisingly, Wang disappearing in a piece of stage magic helped by Joanne Shyue’s (徐子涵) lighting, which is sublime throughout as it picks out bodies, sometimes framing them in a golden aura.

The second part of the work begins with Ku Ming-shen, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Dance at the National Taipei University of the Arts, perhaps best known for her work promoting contact improvisation, slowly unfurling once again the scrunched-up paper. There’s an inescapable feeling that it holds something very personal, something that’s revealed in the act of opening it out. Maybe that memory or whatever is embodied in the sudden appearance of Su An-li, a professor at the Chinese Culture University and long-standing choreographer and artistic director of the Hwa Kang Dance Company, the university’s graduate ensemble.

When Su runs in, she clings to Ku tightly. While their duet that follows features a similar movement vocabulary as the second for Wang and Lee, it comes with a very different movement quality. Of a different generation, they hold the stage wonderfully. Emotion and depth of feeling are etched deeply on both faces and in both bodies. You just don’t want to take your eyes off them for a second.

While Being (S) duo is most certainly about relationships, the act of uncovering and covering, the presence of two generations, also points in the direction of birth and death, and a lot in between: of the certainties but also the uncertainties of life, to be young and then older. Ultimately, of what it is to be human, a sense enhanced further by the way the lights flicker at the end, as if going out on life itself. The memories of a startlingly beautiful piece remain indelibly etched in the mind, though; just like that ink.

Being (s) duo was presented as part of TIFA (Taiwan International Festival of Arts) 2026.