Comments on the Finalist

HORSE’s FreeSteps series, instead of being different dances of similar style in one series, is more like an in-depth, continually developed project launched by choreographer Su Wei-Chia and other dances to reflect on the body in dance. HORSE’s FreeSteps resembles an attempt to phenomenologically restore the body in dance, in which all complicated, external concepts related to dance have been suspended. The series returns to the body, allowing it to be guided by the consciousness and produce constant movement, rhythm and physical diagrams. From Chou Shu-Yi and Chen Wu-Kang to Fang Yu-Ting in this year’s NiNi, Su Wei-Chia and other dancers in the FreeSteps series have exceptionally delineated a brand new horizon of what dance can be with infinite body configuration. (Commentator: LIN Yu-Shih)

Artwork Introduction

The FreeSteps series is the “Ten-Year Choreography Project” launched by choreographer Su Wei-Chia in 2013, which has aimed to honestly face the body and dance choreography as a way to challenge his creative limit while reflecting on contemporary dance and choreographic approaches. FreeSteps—NiNi marks the sixth year of the ten-year project, and is specifically created for the performer, Fang Yu-Ting. The dance draws inspiration from the body qualities of Fang and crafts the dance in a sculptural way to delineate the dancer’s physicality, discovering her potentials and formulating the performer’s irreplaceability in the work. Meanwhile, the work also embraces the outdoor environment by performing in the open space, integrating the performer, the audience and the now to construct a new relationship between the viewing and the viewed in dance while introducing a more diverse and possibility-filled dialogue with the audience.

About the Artist

HORSE Founded in 2004, HORSE has established a distinct profile as a dance company for their approach of collective creation with unrestrained creativity and their delicate, perfectly executed dance expression. In 2008, Velocity was awarded the Performing Arts Award in the 6th Taishin Arts Award; in 2013, 2 Men was awarded the 1st Prize and the Audience Award in Germany’s Kurt Jooss Preis. In recent years, the two key figures of HORSE, Chen Wu-Kang and Su Wei-Chia, have respectively cultivated their personal creative praxis while endeavoring in transnational collaborations, dance promotion and curatorial work of series events, including Primal Chaos, Back to the Moment Dancing Talking Bar, NCAF’s “Inclusive Arts Project” and We Island Dance Festival.