Winners of the 2023 Silver Lion, the TAO Dance Theater is a Chinese dance company based in Beijing. Founded in 2008 by the choreographers Tao Ye, Duan Ni and by the producer Wang Hao, the company has an innovative approach to movement, a body technique known as “Circular Movement System”. At its roots is the idea of pure dance, achieved through the “ritualistic repetition of the body’s natural movements”, invoking the spectators’ capacity to concentrate on the essential nature of the repeated gesture, devoid of any ornament.
Inspired by the symmetry intrinsic to the number itself, 11 (2021) reflects upon the expression of the individual introduced into a collective context. Just like the two digits that compose the number 11 remain independent of one another while mirroring each other, in the same way the 11 dancers on stage move the lower part of their bodies (hips, knees, feet) on the basis of a rigorously detailed choreography, leaving the upper part of the body (shoulders, elbows, wrists, bust, spine and head) free to express itself independently. Seeking a point of balance between individual nature and the order of the group.
