Taiwanderful
The second and final week of Project Sau.te’s Quarantine Project was, on the whole, even more creative than the first week (see Week 1 review). Mei-Yun Lu and Guang-Xuan Chen were by far the best organised of all the project’s twelve participants; not only did they dance a duet, they included clever camera angles, used several rooms and did away with all the waiting at the beginning of the video by, presumably, pre-recording the piece. On top of all that, it was brilliantly performed, featured some seriously good choreography and was full of humour. The chocolate fondant fight and the mambo scene were my favourite bits but all told, this has to be the best new dance work I’ve seen under lockdown so far.
(Mei-Yun Lu & Guang-Xuan Chen light the way for lockdown dance videos)
Yan-Yeong Liao also went to a lot of effort with his work. He turned his room into a theatre, the only participant of the project to make his house look like something that it’s not. Incorporating coloured lights, interesting props and even blocking out the windows to gain artistic control of the space, Liao gave his work a philosophical and mystical bent quite unlike anything attempted yet which resulted in fairly impressive use of imagination and resources.
Talking of resources, Yun-Wen Tang, for some reason, has a red male mannequin lying around her house and so she decided to use him as a partner. Any prospective human partners (dance or otherwise) would be wise to watch this video before accepting any invitations, for although the beguiling Ms Tang demonstrates the tender, gentle side of her nature, she also has no hesitation in pummeling her colleague half to death with her martial arts skills. Seriously though, folks, she’s put together a varied work with invention and intelligence.
(Yun-Wen Tang. Don’t be fooled by her angelic face. She’s fierce)
The endearingly coy Chien-Yao Liao presented an introspective piece that brought forward a subtle sense of emotional narrative while the other two works for the week, by Chih-Han Chiu and Yen-Yu Pai were well danced but meandered along without much intent. On the whole, though, the Quarantine Project has yielded some superb results and reveals how much Taiwanese dancers have to offer of themselves to the benefit of everyone. Congratulations to George Liang and Project Sau.te for organising it all and I hope it’s not too long before all these artists can work again in front of a packed physical audience.
Click here to see all the Quarantine Project videos on the Project Sau.te Facebook page.
Gerard Davis
Dancing Review 
ROC rocks!