AFTER THE PARTY
CROSSOVER DANCE CO, TAIWAN
Directed by Charlotte
Vincent
Designed by Keh-hua Lin
Lighting and Costume Design Shin-hsing Wang
Made and Performed by Man-fei Lo, Shu-gi Cheng, Xiao-Xiong Zhang, Wei-min
Wang and Min-fei Hsieh
After The Party was made over 4 weeks in summer 2002, a collaboration between Charlotte Vincent and Crossover Dance Company. Crossover is an extraordinary company of mature dancers, who have retired from Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan but wish to continue their performing careers as they enter their late 30's, 40's and 50's. Crossover's dancers share a powerful life force, which defines the spirit of the company and their reason for continuing to perform in middle age. Their life force, commitment and skill go a long way towards defining the spirit of dance itself.
The members of Crossover share a multitude of colourful and devastating stories, the physical and emotional remnants of which are carried deep within their bodies. A desire to share and uncover these memories, to find humour in difficulty and beauty in disintegration, makes their work stand out. After the Party exposes the funny, awkward and painful stories about love and marriage. 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.
This piece opened at the Novel Hall, downtown Taipei on 7th November 2002.
Funded and supported by The British
Council in Taipei and the National University of the Arts, Taipei.
