TAO Dance Theatre has performed in every modern dance festival throughout China and collaborated with leading Chinese artists across genres including theatre, experimental music, visual arts and installation. Their UK premiere closes 2011’s world tour.

Their newest work, 2, is a duet performed by Artistic Director and company founder Tao Ye and Duan Ni. The company recorded their own conversations during rehearsal and daily life for composer Xiao He to use the natural spoken rhythms to develop the accompanying musical score. The resulting performance is both hypnotic and thought provoking as minimalistic movements develop into virtuosic patterns to express the abstract idea of two souls in conversation.

Weight x 3 is a triptych of pieces concerned with perceptions of physical practice, performed to the music of Steve Reich. Choreographer Tao Ye explores the idea that people have become disconnected from the body’s creative abilities, and this work is part of his mission to reconnect, through corporeal research, with a sense of self and identity.

Watch this video – Out of Asia: the future of contemporary dance?
A short film with a focus on Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Beijing Dance Theater and TAO Dance Theatre, plus interviews with Alistair Spalding and Akram Khan discussing the importance of dance in the East.

Part of Out of Asia