The 2024 SummerWorks Performance Festival, scheduled to take place from August 1 to 11 in Toronto, Canada, is launching its unprecedented “Taiwan Focus” program series. This series features three boundary-pushing contemporary works from some of Taiwan’s most celebrated movement-based companies, including Kua-bo Dance Theater (看嘸舞蹈劇場), Fist & Cake Production (軟硬倍事), and HORSE (驫舞劇場).
In partnership with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, this year’s SummerWorks embarks on a new International Development Strategy to foster long-term and sustainable engagement with diverse international artists and companies, focusing on Taiwan and South Korea in 2024.
Featured Taiwanese works at this year’s festival include the Canadian premiere of Girl’s Notes III, a solo performance that highlights the experiences of women who have retreated from public spaces due to the isolating effects of the pandemic; Meet the Bones, a movement meditation with four performers exploring new cohesive ways of using their bodies and minds; and the world premiere of Three Dots, an examination of play within contemporary Taiwanese Indigenous family structures.
Entering its 34th year, the SummerWorks Performance Festival expands the possibilities of performance as Canada’s premier curated live performance festival. With the theme “Survival Mode,” this year’s festival holds space for a diversity of perspectives and lived experiences, featuring over 40 projects and 100 artists from across Canada, as well as from Taiwan, Morocco, Kenya, and South Korea.
In addition to the exciting “Taiwan Focus” program series at SummerWorks, Toronto-based dance companies adelheid & Dreamwalker are co-presenting a series of events featuring visiting artists and producers from Taiwan in August. These include movement workshops led by renowned Taiwanese artists WuKang Chen (陳武康), Fangas Nayaw (陳彥斌), I-Fen Tung (董怡芬), and PinWen Su (蘇品文); a producer talk featuring Taiwanese producer Wen Huang (黃雯) and other Toronto-based professionals; and an open studio presented by Taiwanese choreographer Naceku (何晏妤) and Nyda Kwasowsky (Toronto).
Register now and join us for these intriguing presentations by performing artists from Taiwan!
Taiwan Focus: SummerWorks 2024
【GIRL'S NOTES III】
Su PinWen / Kua-bo Dance Theater
AUGUST 1, 7:00PM
AUGUST 3, 3:30PM
AUGUST 4, 6:45PM
Venue: The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St, Toronto)
Tickets: https://summerworks.ca/show/girls-notes-iii/
【THREE DOTS】
Fangas Nayaw & I-Fen Tung / Fist & Cake Production
AUGUST 2, 7:15PM
AUGUST 3, 2:00PM
AUGUST 4, 5:15PM
Venue: The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St, Toronto)
Tickets: https://summerworks.ca/show/three-dots/
【MEET THE BONES】
Wu-Kang Chen / HORSE
AUGUST 9, 7:30PM
AUGUST 10, 3:00PM
Venue: Factory Theatre, Mainspace (125 Bathurst St, Toronto)
Tickets: https://summerworks.ca/show/meet-the-bones/
For more information: https://summerworks.ca/summerworks-international-development-strategy/
Events & Workshops (International Choreographic Interlink: Toronto/Taipei)
【Connect w/The Bones with WuKang Chen】
August 3, 10AM-12PM
Venue: The Citadel Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St., Toronto)
【Move to Play: find your motif with Fangas Nayaw + I-Fen Tung】
August 9, 10AM-12PM
Venue: The Citadel Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St., Toronto)
【My Nude Self with PinWen Su】
August 10, 9:30AM-2:30PM (w/break 11:30AM-12:30PM)
Venue: The Citadel Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St., Toronto)
【Producers Talk】
Wen Huang /Taiwan, Ariana Shaw/Toronto, Kevin Matthew Wong/Toronto, and Aislinn Rose / Toronto
August 6, from 2:15-3:45PM
Venue: Meridian Hall (1 Front St E, Toronto)
【OPEN STUDIO [Toronto/Taipei]】
An informal sharing of in-process performance work that brings together emerging choreographers Naceku [Taiwan] & Nyda Kwasowsky [Toronto]
August 9, 1-2PM
Venue: The Citadel Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St., Toronto)
Pay What You Can at the door
For more information and registration: https://adelheid.ca/toronto-taipei