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2022 Taiwan Dance Platform “Body Online” International screendance showcase from October 22 in Weiwuying Exhibition Hall
Since the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) opened a call for submission of screendance films worldwide in July for the 2022 Taiwan Dance Platform "Body Online," it has received 256 submissions from 46 countries/regions across five continents. Set to rediscover the vocabulary and dialogue of bodies through film as a media, shortlisted works by professional juries will be presented from October 22 (Sat.) to November 20 (Sun.) in Weiwuying's Exhibition Hall for free admission.
With the theme of "Body Online", this year's open call invited artists, dancers, directors, and filmmakers from all over the world to submit dance short films from 3 to 20 minutes of all genres, screen dance, dance for camera, documentary related to dance or body language as a means of contemplating how to connect with the world.
Weiwuying Artist-In-Residence and curator of 2022 Taiwan Dance Platform, Shu-yi CHOU explains, "For the past two years, Covid has forced the performing arts presentations to stop repeatedly, creating instability in the sector. Many performers delve into the art of video to rediscover the language of their body, redefining the possibilities for performance virtually and physically. Dance films have thus inspired a new power. The exhibition brings together works from all around the world that offer insights to the dance development of the future."
The jury panel is formed by dance and film professionals which consists of curator Shu-yi CHOU, filmmaker Singing CHEN, actress and screenwriter Ke-xi WU (who was selected for Variety's "2020 International Women's Impact Report), and Weiwuying Deputy General Director Raymond WONG. A finalist of ten films with distinctive style and one "special mention" with significance were chosen after intense discussion.
Dutch filmmaker Karel van LAERE's SLow depicts someone being dragged by a cable along the streets of Taipei, showing the defenseless human bodies, who are surrounded by machines and established systems. Greek choreographer Stella MASTOROSTERIOU's I DON'T SEE DEER explores the relationship between the body and urban spaces with site-specific images that look at the boundaries between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Serbian director Marko PEJOVIĆ's Glance, which is an inclusive dance film. It was a finalist at the European Cinematography AWARDS (ECA) that was created by dancers with and without disabilities referring to glances at self-reflection, the helpless parts of one's body, the ability to break out of frameworks, and the potential opened up by cooperation.
Indian directors Sagarika DEBNATH and Prakriti SHARDAs' Dotted Bodies is a record of the creative process and accompanying melancholy shared by two college students preparing for their school's annual production piece. South Korean Trust dance theatre's Order in Chaos relates the concept of mutual respect between people based on their differences and how they experience a sense of order and freedom within the order and chaos of interdependence. FIGHTERS is the collaboration between Taiwanese film director Wu Hsiao-lu and choreographer YANG Nai-hsuan, which was made for Taiwan Season of the 2021 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The concept is based on the story of five honorable, valiant Shu-state generals in the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Its energy and emotion explore the occurrence of movement, and the video version, influenced by the arrival of Covid, reflects on how heroes deal with their bodies and mindsets within the tense atmosphere of a pandemic.
Singapore's CHEN Jiexiao from the dance company MIAO DANCE has won dance video awards at over 100 global film festivals. Her piece Amaranthine explores the scars and sacrifices of urbanization from the perspective of daily life in Guangzhou. Russian director Dina VERYUTINA's The Fog is about a man and a woman waiting for the fog to come: the man is fed up with fighting and wishes to hide in the fog, while the woman wishes to find herself through it—both believe that once it comes, everything will change!
In Malaysian director LOW Pey Sie's Seni Tari Kontemporari: Memori Seketul Jasad (Part 1), 30 years after ending her dance career, LOKE Soh Kim dives deeper into understanding where movement originates in an independent art space. Hong Kong director Jeremy Chi-hang AU's Tramways, personified the tram meandering around Hong Kong Island from east to west during Covid-induced silence within the usually bustling city of Hong Kong.
Along with these ten pieces, the Juries chose one more submission for Special Mention. In Ukrainian choreographer Anton OVCHINNIKOV's Monochrome, which was made sometime after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a man dances in a vast, lonely natural setting. The juries selected the piece as a means of supporting the ideals and creative spirit of artists in a worn-torn country with the hope that people around the globe will use the power of art to help each other and that the war will end soon.
► For more information on the 2022 Taiwan Dance Platform, please visit the official website
► Shortlisted Candidates for Screendance submissions to 2022 Taiwan Dance Platform