Dance Tabs
Date: March 8, 2020
By: Siobhan Murphy
Cheng’s 13 Tongues was inspired, we’re told, by memories of the temples and religious rites that fill the oldest district of Taipei, and the storytelling skills of a renowned street artist. It was an often bewildering hour of swirling motion as 11 black-clad dancers bustled, scuttled, staggered, stomped, laughed, shouted, screamed and chanted, to a score that mixed folk tunes, rhythmic electronica, minor chord piano and warped strings.
Waves of movement caught up the dancers, who travelled around the stage with fluid grace, sometimes galvanised into synchronicity – huddling together, or forming a snake-like line – sometimes all caught up in individual preoccupations. Solo interludes punctuated the maelstrom, with the other dancers forming a curious crowd of onlookers. [FULL STORY]