{"id":848,"date":"2012-08-04T21:59:56","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T01:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2012\/08\/pass_go_with_tao_dance_theatre.html"},"modified":"2012-08-04T21:59:56","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T01:59:56","slug":"pass_go_with_tao_dance_theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2012\/08\/pass_go_with_tao_dance_theatre.html","title":{"rendered":"Pass go: With Tao Dance Theatre, the Chinese head straight to postmodernism"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nFrom my Financial Times review<\/a> of the Tao Dance Theatre, at Lincoln Center Festival last week–one of the few modern dance companies from mainland China, and extraordinary: <\/font><\/p>\n


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China came late to modern dance – and nothing is as deadly as a recent convert’s earnest faith. So when the programme declared that Beijing choreographer Ye Tao, of the five-year-old Tao Dance Theater, “eschews representational modes of dance” even to the point of forgoing words for numerals in dance titles, I thought I knew the kind of discovery we were in for: all on their end, none on ours. What a relief to be wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 90-minute show was not easy. The impersonality of its outrageousness may have precluded hot-headed protest, but by the halfway mark of the second piece the entire row behind me had tiptoed out.<\/font><\/p>\n

This duet, entitled 2<\/em>, began with Tao and co-choreographer Ni Duan lying on their bellies for five minutes like green mould against the bright white floor while folk-punk composer He Xiao engulfed us in high-pitched static. The piece ended strangely too, with the eccentric music carrying on after the dance had finished and the dancers had re-entered to wait for it to croak its last so they could bow.<\/font><\/p>\n

It was the first time they stood. Until then the duo had flopped about on their bellies and backs and sidled samurai-style from knee to knee in swampy, swirly, unexpectedly gorgeous patterns. But more than the low-riding style, the long freezes or the industrial detritus that Xiao mixed with fairy tinkles and swathes of chalky cello, it was 2<\/em>‘s flouting of structure that proved bracing – or, for some, unbearable. The duet was all about starting and stopping and starting again without ever quite becoming.<\/font><\/p>\n


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\"TaoDance_9132small.jpg\"<\/font><\/p>\n


\nYe Tao and Ni Duan riding low in 2<\/em>. Photo by Matthew G. Johnson courtesy of the Lincoln Center Festival.<\/font><\/p>\n


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I admired the squirm-inducing 2<\/em>, but 4<\/em> really made me want to keep up with the young choreographer’s work.<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


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For what distinguished 4 <\/i>from 2, <\/i>please click<\/a>. Every click<\/a> is a click for dance<\/a> (and you only have to free-register once for perpetuity). <\/font><\/p>\n


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<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From my Financial Times review of the Tao Dance Theatre, at Lincoln Center Festival last week–one of the few modern dance companies from mainland China, and extraordinary:  China came late to modern dance – and nothing is as deadly as a recent convert’s earnest faith. So when the programme declared that Beijing choreographer Ye Tao, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}