TAO Dance Theatre: “6 & 7”

Two exact lines in the space, one white, the other blue-black. Six or seven dancers carrying out an apparently repetitive, highly demanding sequence of movements. Upper bodies and shoulders circle, as if in trance, to monotonous electric strings or meditative monastic drones. Heads are bent to the ground or raised to the sky. Rigid steps and angular turns alternate with loose swaying movements. Elastic lightness becomes rigid minimalism and takes on a threatening martial aspect. In “6”and “7” Tao Ye, Chinese shooting star of the international dance scene, shows two parts of his number series, devoid of narrative, demanding the extreme virtuosity from his dancers and pure openness of attention from the audience. Almost acrobatic physical mastery is required for the swift changes, the apparently effortless shifts of weight with a lowered head. The dancers of the TAO Dance Theatre move as synchronously as if their movements were communicating through a medium between their bodies, which take on a sculptural quality, dressed in wide blue-black skirts or narrow white tubes on an alternately dimly and glaringly lit stage. Tao Ye’s formally rigorous, reduced abstractions are nonetheless open to free association by the audience: we might be watching farmers at work, warriors approaching, or office workers (or perhaps swaying trees) in the park. Tao Ye, who trained at the Chongqing Dance School, danced in the Shanghai Army Song & Dance Ensemble, the Jin Xing Dance Theatreand the Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC), founded his TAO Dance Theatre in 2008. He is considered the enfant terrible of contemporary Chinese dance because he refuses to compromise, conveying his own individuality through his choreographies and encouraging their subjective perception by his audiences.