After spending ten years in the United States of America, Wen-Chung Lin returned to Taiwan and started his own dance company WCdance. WCdance made its world debut with an evening-length work entitled Small, while the form of Small, described as “micro-theatre” by Wen-Chung Lin, was inspired by how Lin had experienced the transition from New York to Taipei. It premiered at Taipei’s Crown Theater in 2008.
The main concept of Small is to further narrow the black box space which is already constricted enough. The performing space is a three-square-meter area, where dancers fill the space with their delicate and dramatically intensive physical movement. In the 65-minute performance, five performers, with each’s unique quality, dance under a mirror within a three-cubic-meter space surrounded by three acrilic walls as well as a white wall on the back.. By shortening the distance between the stage and the auditorium, Small highlights the visual effect which is “small, focused, concentrated, and pure.” The music in the piece also reflects our surroundings in the modern society. It features the noises of the construction sites, evoking the shared memories of all Taiwanese who live on such a crowded island.
In such a constricted space, audience has to pay more attention to the physical movements and the bodies of the performers. It is the aesthetics of “micro-theatre” that “making the small theatre smaller may highlight how space influences modern people” as if we were “looking at the dance and the human bodies through a microscope.”
The dance movement of Small is developed based on the definition of “small” in Ci Hai, an encyclopedic dictionary. It starts with movements only, and the choreographer has to deal with the limited space physically and artistically, turning obstacles into the driving force. The ideas of “small,” “limitation,” and “purity” are integrated with other theatrical elements to express the dream and the desire being confined. Meanwhile, it further explores the physical movement in an oppressing, embarrassing, and restraining space to reflect modern people’s contradictory desire about the environment and their lives.
Unlike the mainstream dance-theatre in Taiwan which usually emphasizes the narratives or the general atmosphere, Small, as a performance in a constricted space, demonstrates a style which is simple, absolute, exquisite, pure, and intensive. It also marks the beginning of WCDance’s five-year series works – the Small Series.
REVIEW
"Small... a highly polished jewel of a work."
～ Taipei Times 2008.12.31
"Small... the choreography, the score, the set and the dancing were all highly polished. "
～ Taipei Times 2008.12.22
ARTICLES
Performance Venue: Crown Theatre
Choreography: Wen-Chung Lin
Lighting Designer: Renault
Stage Designer: Tzu-Yen Huang
Composer: Umi Hsieh
Costume Designer: Ching-ru Lin
Graphic Designer: Wei Liao
Photographer: David Tsai
Dancers: Wen-Chung Lin, Guo-Chi Lee, Hsiao-Yuan Lin, Yu-Wen Chiu, Shing-Ya Wu
The main concept of Small is to further narrow the black box space which is already constricted enough. The performing space is a three-square-meter area, where dancers fill the space with their delicate and dramatically intensive physical movement. In the 65-minute performance, five performers, with each’s unique quality, dance under a mirror within a three-cubic-meter space surrounded by three acrilic walls as well as a white wall on the back.. By shortening the distance between the stage and the auditorium, Small highlights the visual effect which is “small, focused, concentrated, and pure.” The music in the piece also reflects our surroundings in the modern society. It features the noises of the construction sites, evoking the shared memories of all Taiwanese who live on such a crowded island.
In such a constricted space, audience has to pay more attention to the physical movements and the bodies of the performers. It is the aesthetics of “micro-theatre” that “making the small theatre smaller may highlight how space influences modern people” as if we were “looking at the dance and the human bodies through a microscope.”
The dance movement of Small is developed based on the definition of “small” in Ci Hai, an encyclopedic dictionary. It starts with movements only, and the choreographer has to deal with the limited space physically and artistically, turning obstacles into the driving force. The ideas of “small,” “limitation,” and “purity” are integrated with other theatrical elements to express the dream and the desire being confined. Meanwhile, it further explores the physical movement in an oppressing, embarrassing, and restraining space to reflect modern people’s contradictory desire about the environment and their lives.
Unlike the mainstream dance-theatre in Taiwan which usually emphasizes the narratives or the general atmosphere, Small, as a performance in a constricted space, demonstrates a style which is simple, absolute, exquisite, pure, and intensive. It also marks the beginning of WCDance’s five-year series works – the Small Series.
REVIEW
"Small... a highly polished jewel of a work."
～ Taipei Times 2008.12.31
"Small... the choreography, the score, the set and the dancing were all highly polished. "
～ Taipei Times 2008.12.22
ARTICLES
Performance Venue: Crown Theatre
Choreography: Wen-Chung Lin
Lighting Designer: Renault
Stage Designer: Tzu-Yen Huang
Composer: Umi Hsieh
Costume Designer: Ching-ru Lin
Graphic Designer: Wei Liao
Photographer: David Tsai
Dancers: Wen-Chung Lin, Guo-Chi Lee, Hsiao-Yuan Lin, Yu-Wen Chiu, Shing-Ya Wu