For three decades, U-Theatre founder Liu Ruoyo has been a constant presence on Taiwanese TV and stage. She credits her training with the innovative director Jerzy Grotowski for providing a foundation for her work, but admits the training was “impressively arduous.”
“I remember doing late night runs in the woods,” she says. “I failed to keep and ended up finishing the run in darkness. I felt so lonely.”
Image by Lin Shengfa. Watch video on YouTube.
While the physical training was as intimidating as could be, Liu credits working under Grotowski’s westernized methods for reconnecting her with her native culture.
“We all grow up in our own cultures, but we barely understand them,” she says. “I wanted to trace the very origin of it.”
Upon returning from her year-long studies in New York, the Hebei-born choreographer spent three years absorbing every detail of the region’s culture from stilt walking to lion drum playing.
In 1988, she launched U-Theatre on Laoquan Mountain with a focus on mixing traditional drum sounds with dances inspired by Taoism, meditation and martial arts.
Photo by Hsu Ping. Watch video on YouTube.
While searching for a lion drum master, she met her partner Huang Zhiqun. The Malaysian-born Huang had practiced drums and martial arts since childhood. Following a trip to India, he introduced Zen Buddhism and meditation to U-Theatre.
“It’s quite simple. The essence is to cast away distracting thoughts and maintain focus on the present,” Huang explains. “This helps us to connect more with Mother Nature. We can notice more sounds, observe more objects and seize the moment. Then, you are Beyond Time.”
In addition to meditation sessions on Laoquan Mountain, U-Theatre organizes the Yunjiao expedition around Taiwan. Members spent 30 to 50 days walking across the island, strengthening their physical bodies while clearing their thoughts by constantly being in motion.
Liu admits it’s easy to train performers to stay in a zone of sedation, but audiences are a different matter. However, shows like Beyond Time are built around the meditative charm of traditional drum beats.
Photo by Hsu Ping. Watch video on YouTube.
Already, the group has garnered international acclaim as one of Taiwan’s best performance groups. They’ve been regularly touring Europe since 1998, and Beyond Time has won raves during recent performances in Italy and India.
Developed over four years, Beyond Time is a 75-minute show comprising six scenes that veer from frenzied drumming to serene pieces. It runs at Shanghai Culture Square from June 19-21.
The show will double as the launch for the Oriental Legacy On Stage series, which also includes Wu Hsingkuo’s Peking Opera adaptation of Waiting for Godot, Edward Lam’s modernization of A Dream of the Red Chamber, What is Sex? And Zhao Liang’s The Tea Spell.
// June 19-20, 7.15pm, RMB80-550. Shanghai Culture Square, tickets.
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