By Lucy Komisar
Chang Chung-An, founder of Taiwan’s Resident Island Dance Theatre, has with great artistry created a work that expresses the difficulties ordinary people have to survive. They are like machines in a factory, repeating the same routines, existing in a time and space defined by society, but it becomes clear that “society” is industrial corporations.
The power of machines is emphasized by mobile platforms on which they dance, which makes them constantly aware of the mechanical forces they must deal with, that challenge their natural movements. But if they break their routines, they are seized by insecurity and fear. Chang asks “Should we choose to accept fate or resist courageously?”
In overalls and other work clothes, the figures in slow motion pull at cables as in an assembly line.
They move, stomping racing running, heading into a crush that throws their bodies on top of each other. They are a mass. All connected. The sounds of machines, of a car or train, grow stronger.
Then they sleep. They twist and lie on each other
One worker (Fang Shih-Yun) tries to resist, to escape.
Sitting on the ground, he propels himself.
But a figure shines light that hurts his eyes as he tries to get away. One dancer pushes another down in conflict. The worker is dragged back, too exhausted to resist.
He goes to a meeting of what appears to be a help group.
But it’s not really to help. A member tells him where to move his arms. He throws her off
But he is put back on the moving platform, back to control by machinery. Pulling cables, pounding, following a frantic pace. The dancers’ bodies become machines. For the moment, they have lost the battle against society’s corporate overlords.
The female dancers are Juan Yi-Chen, Lin Chia-Hen, Huang Ying-Chia, and Huang Yi-Yen. They and Fang Shih-Yun are terrifically agile and expressive, with choreographer Chang Chung-An’s vivid movements almost like mime.
There were deserved bravos at the end.
“In Factory.” The Resident Island Dance Theatre in Taiwan. Choreography by Chang Chung-An. Lighting and direction by Tsai Hsin-Ying. Photos by Huang Jyong-Jhe. At Theatre de la Condition des Soies, 13 rue de la Crois, Avignon. Tel 33 4 9022 4843. Runtime 45 min. July 2 to 21, 2024. Video. Festival OFF Avignon.