After touring in New York, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, Beijing and Denmark, Taiwanese Choreographer Kuan-Hsiang Liu is invited by the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival to present his “Kids” in Vancouver. There will be three performances and one workshop at Scotiabank Dance Centre from January 24th to 26th, 2019.
“Kids” is the third Taiwanese work that comes to PuSh, and the former artistic director of PuSh, Norman Armour said “’Kids’ is a very strong work.” It is a groundbreaking biographical dance piece by choreographer Kuan-Hsiang Liu, a tribute to death exploring the very last journey of his mother and himself. The recordings he made of his mother in her last days became the material for this piece. “I found the possibility of various dances from the recording of my mother,” Kuan-Hsiang Liu said. For the PuSh festival performance, Kuan-Hsiang Liu and his group will put more emphasis on dance gestures and narratives to reach across language barrier and communicate with non-Mandarin speaking audiences. He also wants to show the customs, rituals and emotions surrounding death unique to Taiwanese culture.
“Kids” is also the winner of the 15th Taishin Performing Arts Award (Taiwan, 2017). It showcases Kuan-Hsiang Liu’s explosiveness and originality in his choreography with minimal sets, and challenges the audiences’ idea of dance while at the same time touching people’s heart with his sincerity.
Kuan-Hsiang Liu and his group will be presenting this new work for Canadian audiences, and interacting with dance lovers through the workshop to better understand their vocabulary of dance.
Kids
Where: Scotiabank Dance Centre (677 Davie Street, Vancouver)
When: Jan 24-26, 2019 at 8pm (Post-Show Talkback: Jan 25, 50 minutes, no intermission)
For more information and tickets, please visit: https://pushfestival.ca/shows/festival-2019/kids/.
