Taiwan Season 2020 Online Symposium - “Connecting with Taiwan” has so far given audiences two great weeks of intriguing webinars and interviews.
The second week commenced with the Taiwan Season 2020 Showcase & Pitch - where the four tour-ready productions that were meant to perform at this year’s Fringe were able to present their works to arts industry professionals online through the Fringe Marketplace platform.
Taking a large level of coordination, the curtains raised in Taipei on Monday evening for Incandescence Dance, Hung Dance, Les Petites Choses Productions and Tai Gu Tales Dance Theatre, whilst UK viewers simultaneously tuned into the live performance just after their lunches. The technical expertise of Step Out Arts and Modern Planet Productions helped ensure the Showcase & Pitch ran without any problems, and the four dance companies were delighted to share their works on an international stage.
Last Tuesday opened with the artist interview of the week, where host Donald Hutera picked the brain of Hung Dance’s Hung-Chung Lai. As with last week, the Q&A section of the interview drove the conversation, diving deeper into the creative process behind Hung Dance’s tour-ready production Boundless. Viewers were also treated to clips of the production, which punctuated the interview.
Last week’s webinars also proved interesting, putting the spotlight onto disability arts. The first webinar on Wednesday saw performance artist and researcher I-Lien Ho accompanying Lee-Chun Yao, Director of Body Phase Studio and Guling Street Avant-garde Theatre, in an exchange about the development of the performing arts for the disabled in contemporary Taiwan. The conversation reflected on recent workshops and collaborative projects, whilst also looking ahead to the Sixth Sense in Performing Arts Festival that will be held in Taipei next year.
For the second webinar of the week on Friday, Lee-Chun Yao returned, this time with composer Sandra Tavali and Indepen-dance’s Karen Anderson, with the session engaging with curatorial practice in Taiwan and Scotland while also delineating various creative practices, such as improvisation. In both webinars, participants in the Q&A chat spurred the conversation with their questions.
With Taiwan Season 2020 reaching its halfway point, the coming week will have a similarly intriguing roster of interviews and webinars. Nai-Hsuan Yang, of Les Petites Choses Productions, will talk about his tour-ready production of Fighters in Tuesday’s interview. The Season’s fifth and sixth webinars, on Wednesday and Friday respectively, will focus on “Cross-cultural translation and collaboration in the performing arts” and “Live art, performance exhibition and expanded choreography” - with independent artist and curator River Lin as the key speaker.