After a triumphant return from its performance engagement at Les Hivernales – Center of Development Choreography National in the Festival d’Avignon Off in July, Taipei based contemporary company T.T.C. Dance will bring its award-winning dance, Persistence of Memory, to the United States. Choreographer Ting-Ting Chang, the artistic director of T.T.C. Dance, along with her company, has been invited by Stephanie Todd Wong, Director of Arts and Culture, Asia Society Texas Center, and will be presenting Chang’s Persistence of Memory, winner of the McCallum Theatre International Choreography Festival in 2016.
Persistence of Memory was inspired by Salvador Dali’s 1931 work of the same name. The choreography emphasizes on the aesthetic concept of moving sculpture, as Chang further deconstructs Dali’s sculpture "Cabinet Anthropomorphique," interweaving it with Sigmund Freud's concepts of sub-consciousness and gender. As dancers experiment with their body vocabulary, Persistence of Memory attempts to interpret the passage of time and space, and regards the stacked cabinets as a symbol of secrets. The stage is used as a canvas, and the dancing bodies become the carrier of a created reality, illustrating a dynamic balance between the real and the unreal.
T.T.C. Dance was established in 2012, and the cabinet series is its signature interdisciplinary creation. In particular, the collaboration features such renowned talents as former Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company chief lighting designer Boon Ann Goh, video image designer Jin-Yao Lin, pianist Shih-Yang Lee, and stage designer Wei-Kuang Chen. Their collaboration continues to interact with the dancers’ movements, as the audience is allowed a peek into this fascinating world of visual spectacle through 3D glasses.
The tour is supported and jointly sponsored by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, Taiwan Academy, and Department of Performing Arts, University of Washington, St. Louis. Persistence of Memory performance Information: Houston 9/22 (Saturday) 19:30, Brown Foundation Performing Arts Theatre, Asia Society Texas Center. 713-496-9901; St. Louis 9/27 (Wednesday) 19:00, Edison Theatre, Washington University in St. Louis. 314-935-6543.