Meditative Dance Theatre in Contemporary Taiwan

U-Theatre, Legend Lin Dance Theatre, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre and the Eastern Body Aesthetics
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-09621-4
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 274 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Research on Taiwan Series

This book explores the most unique contemporary forms of Taiwanese dance theatre and the theatre of movement created by renowned choreographers whose productions are committed to the Eastern body aesthetics (dongfang shentiguan).

By examining the shared backgrounds of the creators of these forms of contemporary dance theatre, the book reveals how native traditions have inspired the formation of these contemporary dances, whether from the Taiwanese islands, mainland China, or other Asian countries, to create innovative performances simultaneously inspired to some extent by Western dance theatre. In doing so the book reveals how Taiwan’s rapidly modernising and increasingly technologically advanced society has made such a radical turn towards the Eastern traditions of corporeality. Finally, it displays the importance of contemplative art in the over-aesthetised reality of our time and how dance becomes a vehicle for the transformation and renewal of human beings in a technocratic and technology-driven world.

Featuring firsthand findings from fieldwork with dance innovators and dance schools in Taiwan, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Taiwanese culture, theatre and dance as well as performance studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Labedzka, Izabella

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Tanz Choreographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Tanz Geschichte des Tanzes

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction 1. Old Concepts and New Practice in Contemporary Taiwan Dance Theatre 2. U-Theatre on the Path of Jerzy Grotowski: Theatre of a Perfect Performer 3. Creating the Dance, Re-creating the Myth: Meditative Dance Theatre of Lin Lee-chen 4. Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. From Narrative to Abstraction: Calligraphic Writing with the Dancer’s Body

Über Autor(innen)

Izabella Labedzka is Professor of Sinology and Theatre Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland, specialising in the history and aesthetics of Chinese theatre and drama, comparative literature and contemporary Chinese poetry and prose.