“Invisible Square” (Yi Yun HSUEH & Kai Wen WU)

This choreographic research project explores how the body and consciousness change in the face of social and political uncertainty. Building on their previous work on the mind-body divide, urban existence and bodily memory, the artists are now broadening their focus to include a collective, societal perspective. The residency in Germany is intended to facilitate international exchange and the site-specific development of the material.

CHEN Pin-Ni

CHEN Pin-Ni explores boundaries and transitions within street dance culture – between dance styles, genders and places. In the southern Taiwanese scene, she frequently encounters the notion of ‘dance purity’, whilst experiencing her own hybrid body, whose movement language is perceived there as ‘European’. She is using her trip to Dresden to explore, through encounters with dancers from diverse backgrounds, how hybrid bodies are perceived and whether diversity in dance can be understood as a possibility rather than a deviation, beyond categorisation.

Please register in advance via:

schallenberg@hellerau.org

Biography

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Chen Pin-Ni (born 1998, Chiayi, Taiwan) is a dancer and choreographer. She has been active in the street dance scene since 2015, influenced by hip-hop and locking as well as a strong focus on musical improvisation. Since 2020, she has been combining street dance with contemporary dance and working with various choreographers. In her choreographic practice, she explores the body from a female perspective and challenges notions of strength, gender and belonging. In doing so, she examines the concept of ‘soft strength’ and how bodies move, adapt and assert themselves within existing structures.

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Yi Yun HSUEH began her artistic career in street dance culture and now moves between hip-hop communities and contemporary art. As a battle dancer and MC, she combines elements of popping with a precise, controlled movement language. Her work views the body as a vessel of consciousness and explores themes such as alienation, disembodiment and altered states of consciousness. Inspired by literature, film, music and Daoist rituals, she works across disciplines – from Butoh and site-specific performances to VR and motion capture.

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As a dancer and performer, Kai Wen WU’s artistic practice is deeply rooted in street dance culture. Drawing on many years of battle experience and a background in breaking and contemporary dance, he blends street culture with contemporary performance. His focus is on floorwork and improvisation. In doing so, he explores the relationships between the body, the city, psychological states and collective emotions. He examines how the body changes under pressure and in extreme conditions, and how individual and collective tensions are expressed physically.

Funding

“Taiwan Moves” is presented in collaboration with ESMC and with the kind support of the TSMC Education & Culture Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan.

Funded by the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony. This initiative is co-financed by tax revenue in accordance with the budget approved by the Saxon State Parliament. With the kind support of ‘So geht sächsisch.’

Taiwan Moves

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