PROGRAMME NOTES
AFTER THE PARTY
CROSSOVER DANCE COMPANY, TAIWAN 2002
I arrived in Taipei mid August 2002, jetlagged from a 16 hour flight and armed only with a bunch of new CD's from Austria, an interest in international collaboration and a relatively open mind. I didn't know much about the context, the country or the company, who I would find, or what approach I would take when I got here. To find out more about each other, we spent the first week in the studio playing, learning some recent phrases from my own work, exploring tasks and improvising together. After two days, two of the original dancers left the project due to recurring injuries brought on by the energetic nature of the work, and Xiao Xong Zhang- an energetic dancer indeed - joined the group.
It would be difficult to communicate and collaborate if dance was not the universal language that it is. Whilst we share a set of codes, and even though these dancers speak excellent English, translation is still a primary pre-occupation in a project such as this: translation of language itself, translation of thoughts into ideas, given and our responses to them.
As a company of skilled and experienced individuals, Crossover share a multitude of colourful and devastating stories. It is the willingness to share these, to find humour in difficulty and beauty in disintegration which connects us, and which makes these performers a joy to work with. It is the human element, not technique, nor the notion of West meeting East, which is so exciting about making something new. The remnants of our physical and emotional lives are carried deep within the body. With maturity these stories deepen and become more complex, vibrant and often ridiculous. Making After the Party has exposed me to funny, awkward and painful stories about love and marriage.
Stories about marrying the right man first, and getting it wrong second
time around, stories about lying to your mother because she thinks your
future husband is too thin, stories about falling in love with shoes, stories
about marrying a woman, when it should have been a man, stories about falling
in love on the other side of the world.
Crossing the geographical and cultural boundaries to be in Taiwan has reminded
me of why I make new dance theatre work. It has to do with putting your
life on the line. It has to do with finding a way of working with strangers
to translate the pathos and hilarity of life's stories into a shared experience
that others can recognise as their own. Crossover's dancers share a powerful
life force which defines the spirit of the company and their reason for
wanting to perform. Their life force, commitment and skill goes a long way
towards defining the spirit of dance itself.
'After The Party' has grown out of a four week collaboration between myself and Crossover Dance Company, funded and supported by The British Council in Taipei. Set in the aftermath of a wedding party, when most of the guests have gone home, the piece reveals the sticky family relationships between the bride, the groom, the groom's mother, her suitor and the groom's grandmother. After hours of drinking and dancing together, they begin to discover more about each other than perhaps they need to know.
Charlotte Vincent
October 2002
Taipei
