Program:
Fang-Yi Sheu & Artists / Way Out
Huang Yi Studio / Fuel
Shu-Yi & Dancers / About Living
Cheng Tsung-Lung / Present
Time:
Sunday May 5, 2013 at 7:30pm (Followed by Post Performance Discussion with Choreographers)
Monday May 6, 2013 at 7:30pm
Venue: New York Live Arts / 219 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011
Purchase Tickets: Tickets are available online at tickets.newyorklivearts.org, by phone at 212-924-0077 and in person at the box office. Box office hours are Monday to Friday from 1 to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 8pm.
About the Choreographers & Programs:
Fang-Yi Sheu & Artists / Way Out
Fang-Yi Sheu, the founder of Fang-Yi Sheu & Artists, was a former Principal Dancer for Martha Graham Dance Company and was praised by media as, “the finest present-day embodiment of Martha Graham’s technique and tradition.” Ms. Sheu received numerous awards recognizing her extraordinary career including the President's Order of Brilliant Star with Cravat in Taiwan in 2005, the National Award for the Arts in Taiwan in 2007, and Ballettanz magazine’s Outstanding Female Dancer in 2008. She was the first Asian artist-in-residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.
Fang-Yi Sheu has collaborated with brilliant dance groups and artists including Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Monte/Brown Dance Company, Shen Wei Dance Art, Lin Hwai-min, Eliot Feld, Shen Wei, Akram Khan, Christopher Wheeldon, Wendy Whelan, San Jijia, Aszure Barton, Edwaard Liang, Yuan Yuan Tan, Russell Maliphant and many more talented artists.
Way out
Everything will find its way out in Life.
Create by Fang Yi Sheu, Way out is a work especially created for young artists. In this piece, dancers' trembles and shivers express the anxious hearts attempting to find a way out in life. The insecure soul and uncertain body violently struggle against the unknown--until the moment trust and faith bloom inside the heart. One realizes that everything will find its way out in life. This work premiered at the National Theater of Taiwan in October, 2012.
Huang Yi Studio / Fuel
Huang Yi is a young choreographer with much potential. In addition to choreography, he is also involved in video recording, photography and art installation. He is adept at incorporating multi- layered images and delicate body movement. LIN Hwai-min, founder of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, once said, "HUANG is an enfant terrible who reveals his unlimited potential in the interweaving of image and dance."
His first work Self in 2004 was an instant success which won the silver medal of Taiwan's National Creative Dance Competition. In the same year, he was invited by the NTCH's New Idea Dance to present his new work. While chosen to attend the American Dance Festival in 2005 by the ChinLin Foundation for Culture and Arts as a representative from Taiwan, his work Messed was showcased in the student concert, and earned the praise of the Independent Weekly's writer Byron Woods.
2007 work SPIN, sponsored by the LO Man-fei Dance Scholarship, was recommended by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts to present at Enghien-Les-Bains Centre des Arts in France. In the same year, he collaborated with the Horse Dance Theater to produce Velocity, which was recognized by the Taishin Arts Award. His 2010 work Whisper won the Second Prize of the third Cross Connection Ballet International Choreography Competition in Copenhagen. His Symphony Project-I. Violin in 2010 won the First Prize of the Digital Art Performance Award of the Digital Art Festival, Taipei. His SPIN 2010 was shortlisted in the annual top ten performing art works by the Taishin Arts Award. In 2011, by the referral of Sheu Fang-yi, he was selected as 25 to Watch by Dance Magazine in the US.
The Dance Company Cloudgate 2 invited Huang Yi choreography new dance, 2008 [Body.Sound], 2009 [Wicked Fish], 2010 [Floating Domain], 2011 [Symphony Project - I. Mechanical Violin]. In 2010 Huang Yi founded the Huang Yi Studio.
FUEL
FUEL is the latest creation by Huang Yi Studio, slated to premiere in New York for the ACC 50th Anniversary celebration season. Moving to explore the body and movement possibilities, Huang Yi is set out to find a new equation for martial arts in modern dance. Based on Sanda, known as Chinese boxing, the combat skills of kicks, boxing and slams are revisited to study as movement derivatives. In FUEL, Huang Yi invites dancer and former martial arts athlete, CHEN Wei-An in close collaboration. The premiere of FUEL in New York City is certain to bring to the dance capital a novel take in dance vocabulary.
Shu-Yi & Dancers / About Living
Chou Shu-Yi started his career as an independent choreographer from 2003. His works mainly focus on the physical movement of a dancing body, while he never stops challenging the pre-existing artistic structure to explore a cross-genre performance style. His recent productions include Start with the Body, 1875 Ravel and Bolero, S, and etc. Acknowledged by the international dance society, Shu-Yi has been invited to perform in world renowned venues, such as 1875 Ravel and Bolero presented in Sadler’s Wells Theatre and New York City Center (Fall for Dance Festival), Start with the Body presented in Rencontres Essonne Danse Festival of France, About Living world premiered in 40th Hong Kong Arts Festival, and etc. In addition, Shu-Yi has won several performing art awards. 1875 Ravel and Bolero was the winner of Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest in 2009; Start with the Body won the third prize of Cross Connection Ballet 3rd International Choreography Competition, Denmark, in 2010. Throughout his artistic practice, his choreographic works have truthfully represented his life, his work, the journey he has taken, and the sensitive mind which accompanies the artist when he is away from home. Through dance, he expresses his true self. In the year of 2011, Shu-yi & Dancers was established and formally started a collative project with dancers as well as the artists from various genres.
About Living
About Living’s concept started from “lights”. Shu-yi Chou and his tech team developed two unique illuminant installations to create a real and a surreal space with lights. Standing in between the space and living, his awareness open to the lights, with the darkness and brightness spinning against each other as abstract and concrete measures in the world. It intertwines like sun and moon on the orbit just like life itself.
About Living – Compared to death, living is indeed more of a burden to him.
This solo piece of work was another self-questioning exercise for his very human body, it was a way to look at what living actually means. We are all livings, and this is precisely the reason why we can enjoy everything we see, every sound we hear and every sense we feel. Until the exact moment at which one’s life reaches an end, no one ever truly knows the due date.
Cheng Tsung-Lung / Present
Cheng Tsung-Lung's family owns a slipper factory. Hawking slippers on the sidewalks was part of his childhood and adolescent life. The dynamics of street life and pedestrians’ behavior later became the source of inspiration for his choreography.
After graduating from the Dance Department of Taipei National University of the Arts, Cheng performed internationally with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan from 2002 to 2004. He served as the Resident Choreographer for Cloud Gate 2 from 2006 to 2010.
He is the winner of the No Ballet International Choreography Competition, Germany (2006), the Premio Roma Danza International Choreography Competition in Italy, the 16th MASDANZA Choreography Competition in Spain (2011), and the Taishin Arts Award (2012) - the most prestigious arts prize in Taiwan. Cheng was honored as “Artist of 2011” by the Performing Arts Reviews, Taiwan, and awarded the Performing Arts Fellowship by the Asian Arts Council to stay in New York for the year of 2012.
His productions with Cloud Gate 2 include: A Dignified Joke, Change, The Wall, Happiness and Music, Crack, and Blue Hour.
Cheng has also choreographed and restaged works for Transitions Dance Company at the Laban Centre, London; Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane, Australia; the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; and Focus Dance Company, Taiwan.
Cheng Tsung-lung has served as Cloud Gate 2’s Associate Artistic Director since 2012.
Present
The solo piece, Present, is a gift for the ACC to celebrate its 50th anniversary.