Three days in Wanhua, day 3: Want to Dance Festival 2025

Various venues, Taipei
April 13, 2025

Three days in Wanhua, day 1
Three days in Wanhua, day 2

Performances that push dance’s boundaries in unusual spaces are a feature of the Want to Dance Festival (艋舺國際舞蹈節). There was plenty of that over the three days but I’m not sure they come much more so than flamenco with a watery twist under a flyover at a busy intersection. But that was where ¡Agua! (¡水啦!) by flamenco dancer/bailaora Lu Lee (李律) and bboy Cheng Tzu-chien (鄭子謙) was to be found.

Lee and Cheng like to explore and investigate the interface between languages, cultures, histories and movement, especially if it’s also fun and challenging. ¡Agua! Brings together Andalucia and Taipei, flamenco and dance theatre.

Having marked the area out almost ritualistically by spreading water from a bottle, Lee treated us to some flamenco danced a board around 75cm square. She removed her shoes and then danced under a shower of water (courtesy of some temporary pipework above) that got gradually heavier. An unusual coming together for sure, but also one that was rather engaging and that felt oddly normal in its surroundings.

Across the intersection, Lu Shao-ko (呂紹可) presented Long Time No See (好久不見得你), a duet danced with Feng Ya-chi (封雅麒).

The premise is simple. Two people, separated for a long time, meet again. They have missed each other and reminisce about the past. But both have moved on and are now mere passers-by in each other’s lives

Sure enough, their gorgeous duet featured lots of meeting and parting, with a distinct air of memory and times past. Making full use of the unusual space, it was full of feeling and included a lot of super partnering and effortless lifts. My only complaint? It was all too short.

In Echoes of the Land (徒途), the second work at the Want to Dance Festival presented by Chen Chu-chen (陳主晨) and Dawn Pottery Dance Studio (東黎舞陶), the dancers embody the essence of clay, although hidden in the work, well-hidden, are also the idea of people compelled to leave their homeland and reflections on belonging and existence

Chen and fellow dancers Crystal Tan Ting-xuan (陳亭瑄), Wu Yi-an (吳翊安), Luo Xin-yi (羅心倚) and Deng Wen-shuo (鄭文碩) appear in clay-coloured body suits that match the colour of the pile of real clay in one corner of the stage. The opening picture is very attractive, one of the women laying atop that mound, a sculpture in itself, or perhaps a sculpture still in the making.

When she is joined by the others, the quintet embody the essence of clay, rolling around each other like being moulded by invisible hands. When Chen slaps himself, his hands become his potter’s hands, his role becoming even more fluid when he later appears to be only the potter ‘moulding’ one of the women. At the end, the cast create a human sculpture, one where we cannot see faces, which somehow adds to its appeal. Echoes of the Land is a little one-paced, but it was rather appealing.

At the start of the Want to Dance Festival, if anyone had suggested that one of the highlights would be a performance by a 79-year-old, I’m not sure I would have believed them. But that’s precisely what happened in Lost in Time (歲月流線) by Wang Yi-fen (王怡方).

If ever there was an advertisement for not allowing age to be barrier to pursuing one’s dancing dreams, the elegant, silver-haired Zheng Shu-fen (鄭淑芬) is it. Although introduced to the performing arts while studying in New York when she was young, she was too busy with her work and family to train, and it wasn’t until she retired that she resumed her interest in dancing. Five years ago, she was introduced to a ‘mature ballet class’ and has not looked back since.

In the perfect setting of a children’s playground, the duet for her and Wang considers issues of time and aging. After an opening in which the couple appear to be older and younger reflections of each other, Zheng takes centre stage. In a long solo she appeared in a quiet space of self, oblivious to the people watching, lost in her own thoughts and memories.

Elegant, she exuded a wonderful calmness. Times past seemed to come flooding back as she played children’s games, hopscotch in particular. She danced with an imaginary partner. A husband or lover no longer present, perhaps. When she looked at herself in a small mirror, she seemed to be thinking back to how she was.

The only blip was that the text read by Wang from a book that closed the duet was barely audible above the background hum of the city, even in this relatively quiet spot. But that didn’t detract from the beauty of the piece. Very poignant and a bit sentimental in many ways, for sure, but also utterly beautiful.

The grassy Heping Green Park was the sunny venue for Imaginary Event (假想敵) created and performed by Tsai Hung-yi (蔡宏義) and Yang Chun-yi (楊峻毅), known as UNI CIRCUS (優尼客當代馬戲團).

It’s previously been selected by other platforms and was performed at MASDANZA in the Canary Islands in 2024. It’s easy to see why. Like all the best pieces, the premise is simple: two men involved in a bit of a disagreement.

Set around a table and two chairs, both of which were made great use of, the short piece flowed very nicely. The focus is very much of ‘acrobatic dance,’ tricks and stunts coming naturally out of the scene rather than obviously being set up. I only recall one handstand move being telegraphed. The connection between the pair, partnering and timing, were all excellent.

Finally to Zone of Silence (靜音地帶) by Lai Chia-jung (賴珈絨), performed by Hong Yu-wen (洪郁雯) on the balcony (effectively a small space on the roof) of U mkt, a former foodstuff market now transformed into a modern venue for cultural events.

Set on a bed of rounded pebbles on which the audience also stand, and at very close quarters, Lai’s head is initially covered by a few larger stones before she comes to life. What follows is a rather esoteric as she shifts between calm tranquillity and disturbance, before ending by asking the audience to close their eyes and ‘feel’ in what was a peaceful and thoughtful end to a super afternoon, and a super three days in Wanhua.

Three days in Wanhua, day 1
Three days in Wanhua, day 2