25th July, Not Alone.

Today I really thought I’d feel alone and a little bit lost after all the excitement that the past three weeks gave me. But it was not so.

First I visited my good friends at the lake, Big Tom, Cathy and the Badminton team, who fed me a delicious meal of dumpling soup and Oolong tea. Then Big Tom took me to an orchard green house where he has his own plot, it was the wrong season for all the flowers to be out, but we still found a few quite beautiful examples (Tom promises to take a photo for me in the peak season, I can imagine the place looking amazing!)

The team! 11 of them came to the show, some for the first time and loved it!

Then I went for a Taiwanese massage before some more tea and my flight back home. On the plane I slept like a baby………..I was exhausted!

So surprisingly, I managed to avoid the lonely feeling one can get upon reaching the end of such an amazing experience.

My time here in Taiwan has been fuller than I can describe in one page, so I will summarise and touch upon the main points of interest.

This experience has not just been an opportunity to showcase myself and my work, it’s also been a learning experience, a definite opportunity to network and find more work (and I did a lot of that!), and a chance to learn a lot about a new culture. Of course, I knew this before I arrived, but had no idea how MUCH more I would learn from this experience.

One of the criteria for this project was to be prepared to create a 10 minute work on non English speaking dancers, but each choreographer did so much more than that; we made lifelong relationships with non English speaking dancers, other choreographers, artists, administrators, facilitators and all of Kaohsiung!  And know that most of what you say to your dancers in the first two weeks DOSE get "Lost in Translation"!

If I had the opportunity to partake in this project again, I would without hesitation! In fact all of the choreographers made a pact to re-apply every year to keep it just for ourselves (of course we’d have to re name it the “2011-IYCP for under 50’s”).  Seriously, I recommend this opportunity to all Australian choreographers, but be warned, it’s not for the faint hearted! People are more friendly here than anywhere else I’ve been to in the world, so if you don’t like friendly people who like to share Oolong tea, home cooked food, and talk………………..don’t go! It would be a waste of time, because, for me the meeting and sharing with new people was the most important part of this trip!

Criteria wise, I did manage to make a new short work, which I was very pleased about! For me this work is a great starting point for something bigger, I hope. Also I was forced to make adjustments to my practice, not just because of the language barrier, but also because of the time constraints and the way dancers are used to working (practice, practice, perfect!:)). I didn't have the luxury of time to play and develop a collaborative language like the one I've developed here, with dancers that I work with all time. But these adjustments mean more confidence for me in knowing that I will be able to deal with similar circumstances, that I'm sure I will come across in the future.

The Q&A Forum, with Translation by Ya-Chin

Photo by Rossy Siong

Photos with the Principle of Tsoying Senior High School, Executive Dir. of Chin-Lin Foundation for the Arts and Culture Wang Yunyu and Secretry General of Tso's Dance Association Miss Chou (Both of whom are Directors of the 'International Young Choreographers Project")

Photo by Rossy Siong

Gifts for the amazing Ya-Chin and Miss Chou!

My Fabulous dancers!

Photo by Yi-Jie

But this experience is not about heading over to produce a kick ass work! If I went over with that attitude, it might have worked, but I would have missed out on so much of the people, plus I think I would have been stressed out and miserable the whole time!

Go there knowing what you want to create for sure! But be adaptable, flexible and sensitive to their cultural needs also. Enjoy the twists and turns of working in a very foreign environment (it won't be what you're used to). Be open and always share your knowledge and experiences with the other choreographers (or just share a beer) the sooner you do that the sooner everyone relaxes and that whole (inner) expectation to be successful is out the window and the three week experience becomes an awesome adventure!

Thank you WDA 2011- International Young Choreographers Project!  I had the best time ever! I will miss you all very much!

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Photo by Triple C!