As part of its Fringe Focus Taiwan partnership, Melbourne Fringe is bringing two contemporary dance pieces to the stage from leading choreographers SU Pin-Wen and Chou Kuan-Jou.
Girl’s Notes (11 – 12 October at Melbourne Recital Centre – Primrose Potter Salon)
Traversing the boundaries of contemporary dance and gender to ask – how should women behave? In a boundary-pushing work that is equal parts performance art and contemporary dance, artist SU Pin-Wen and pianist LIN Mai-Ke take inspiration from a 1990s Taiwanese book instructing women on how to behave.
With captivating on stage presence, the duo explore the intentions behind our everyday actions. SU’s work challenges heteronormative notions of gender, feminism and nudity, taking dance into conceptual realms to interrogate notions of gender and the power dynamics of women’s sexuality within relationships.
SU Pin-Wen (he/him/they) is an artist and Artistic Director of Kua Bo Dance Theatre. His work challenges the heteronormative stereotypes revolving around notions of gender, feminism and nudity.
Tomato (2 – 5 October at Dancehouse – Sylvia Staehli Theatre)
Created by the gifted dancer-choreographer Chou Kuan-Jou for herself and two other performers, not to mention a few ripe and shapely red fruits, Tomato is a cultural experience both playful and provocative.
Lust and desire take center stage in a canny, capricious combination of live performance and live-camera documentation. This enticingly tasty work is an absurdly funny expression of Chou’s ongoing interest in the sexualized body from a feminist perspective. Here private manifestations of sexuality receive a rib-ticklingly public spin.
Chou Kuan-Jou is an artist based in Taiwan. As a multi-dimensional performing energy and sensitivity carrier, she is a theatre performer, choreographer, action designer, and dance instructor. In recent years, she has devoted herself to the artistic practice of the “Lust Body” employing the fluidity of sexuality as a strategy to loosen boundaries. Through tactile perception, she expands into a dance-based dialogical space, concentrating on the manifestation of bodily politics. Her practical methods include but are not limited to body practices, workshops, and performances.
Fringe Focus Taiwan is a program that shines a spotlight on the innovative art coming out of one of Asia’s most creatively inspired centres. In 2024, Fringe Focus Taiwan will explore the boundaries of gender and the changing shape of feminism at the intersection of private and public spaces.
For more information, visit melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-guides/fringe-focus-taiwan.
Share this:
