{"id":5008,"date":"2013-07-31T07:27:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T07:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/?p=5008\/"},"modified":"2017-08-29T01:53:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T01:53:29","slug":"the-tao-of-dance-tao-ye-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/the-tao-of-dance-tao-ye-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"The TAO of dance: Tao Ye interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Check out the full Time Out Beijing article at this link.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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The flexibility of Chinese dancers is worshipped the world over, and even by these stratospheric standards, the boneless Tao Ye stands out. But though his body moves like a cracked whip, it is his choreography that will make him famous. In the five years since he founded the TAO\u00a0Dance Theatre (TDT) he has played festivals both at home and abroad, run standing room-only dance workshops, drawn sold-out crowds at the Sydney Opera House and New York\u2019s Lincoln Centre, and this month makes his NCPA debut. And Tao is just getting started.<\/p>\n

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The Chongqing native undoubtedly has athletic blood, with his grandfather running a wushu <\/i>school and his mother a talented amateur dancer. \u2018She sent me to dance school to do what she never did,\u2019 Tao says. Once at Chongqing Dance School he soaked up the standard Chinese training programme of ballet, folk and classical dance that makes the country\u2019s dancers envied across the globe. But Tao found more freedom in modern and contemporary choreography, spending several years with both the Jin Xing Dance Company and Beijing Modern Dance Company.<\/div>\n
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But even that proved too constraining. Tao had flirted with choreographing in both companies and now had found his calling. \u2018It\u2019s instinct,\u2019 he says. \u2018It forces you to \u2013 or allows you to \u2013 understand yourself better. With dance you are always giving, giving, giving to audiences. With choreography, you can [take] something back.\u2019 In 2008 he started his own company. \u2018I like to be free, to do my own works. [Here] there are no limits.\u2019<\/div>\n
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Tao co-founded TDT with fellow dancer Wang Hao, but the core member is Duan Ni, formerly with Akram Khan and Shen Wei. The two became a couple at Jin Xing Dance Theatre, but Duan left to establish an international career, returning to join TDT in 2008. At the height of their international tour, Tao surprised his longtime love with an onstage proposal in front of a sold-out crowd. \u2018The stage is our ultimate dream,\u2019 he says. \u2018I wanted to give her my commitment where our dreams and reality come together.\u2019<\/div>\n
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They are a striking couple; besides having matching shaved heads, Duan\u2019s body is equally devoid of joints, cartilage and other obstructions that hamper us mere mortals. \u2018We have so much in common!\u2019 says Tao, listing their similar physicality and dance styles, identical zodiac signs, and name characters with the same number of strokes. And that\u2019s not all. \u2018My fingerprints are ten perfect circles, and hers are ten arches [a perfect match],\u2019 he says. \u2018It would be too difficult for us not to be a couple.\u2019<\/div>\n
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Tao feels his standards for her are higher than his other dancers, but that they both influence and understand each other. \u2018Whenever I feel there is something wrong with my dancers, she has already noticed and is [fixing] it,\u2019 he says. \u2018She 100 percent trusts me. Even if I am wrong about something, she supports me all the way through until I give up the idea [myself],\u2019 he continues. \u2018Not only in our daily lives do we get along well, but also we see eye-to-eye about our dancers, choreography and aesthetics,\u2019 he continues. \u2018We are perfect partners.\u2019<\/div>\n
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To sum up Tao\u2019s still-developing creative style, think of a jewel \u2013 small, structured, perfectly formed, but with unexpected depth and glorious complexity. While other groups will toss in a red scarf or reference the I Ching<\/i> just to attract festivals looking for \u2018something Chinese\u2019, Tao eschews clich\u00e9s and is honest sometimes to the point of alienation \u2013 while critically acclaimed, his dance 2 <\/i>had some audience walkouts. Their loss. Tao frees himself from all dance convention \u2013 such as dramatic narrative, body-baring costumes and even music on occasion \u2013 and the effect is liberating, even inspiring. In 2<\/i>, Tao and Duan spend long periods lying motionless in complete silence \u2013 when they do move, their bodies rarely leave the floor. A celebration not only of upper body strength but of silent counting, 2 <\/i>is mesmerising, not least because of its deceptive simplicity. In the more popular 4<\/i>, a whimsical quartet of androgynous dancers wear baggy smocks, masks and wigs, moving to Xiao He\u2019s genius score of repeated syllables and staccato sounds. Unlike other pas de quatre, they don\u2019t break into solos or duets; indeed, they never leave their diamond formation, but Tao creates texture and variety nonetheless.<\/div>\n
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Over the past five years, TDT has made its mark, both on China\u2019s dance education scene and on the world stage, but Tao views his career as a \u2018lifetime of searching and development,\u2019 and sees nothing to celebrate. \u2018The only thing I can do is my own thing well.\u2019 That he does. You may not love all his works, but attention must be paid; Tao may just emerge as China\u2019s greatest choreographer.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Check out the full Time Out Beijing article at thi [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-cn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/SiteFiller3.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6352,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5008\/revisions\/6352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pingpongarts.org\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}