Young dancer pursues int'l exposure

After winning a gold medal at a national dance competition organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs in 2005, Chou and several young choreographers founded Taiwan's first all-male dance company “HORSE.”

During a residency at Taipei Artist Village in 2006, Chou met French sound artist Yannick Dauby and they joined forces to create a devised performance that used environmental sounds, as part of the Digital Art Critic Prize program.

That experience helped to broaden Chou's artistic scope and spurred him to explore other possibilities. His multimedia productions soon gained recognition in Taiwan arts circles and he was invited by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art in Taichung to present an original mutimedia performance of experimental music.

In 2008, Chou performed with the former principal dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Sheu Fang-yi, in “37art” for Taiwan's Lafa Dance Company.

That same year, more opportunities for international exposure began to open up for Chou. He was sponsored by the Lo Man-Fei Dance Fund to attend an overseas choreography program and was also invited to work with French choreographer Thierry Bai to choreograph a collective creation “Bones,” which was to be performed at the Joyce Theater in New York City by HORSE in early April.

The two performances of “Bones” earned the Taiwanese all-male troupe a good review in the New York Times. Arts critic Roslyn Sulcas called the group “talented and appealing” and said the production felt “both fresh and intriguing.”

After the April performances in New York City, Chou joined the International Choreographer Residency program of the American Dance Festival at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Returning to New York in late April, he entered a six-month Asian Cultural Council residency program.

This year, he will go to France in October to attend a three-month residency program “Cite des Arts” in Paris. According to Chou, 2009 has been a year of rumination.

“The overseas residency programs allow me to experience different environments and to look at the relationship between my own existence and dance, and to understand how art is related to society,” he said.

Full of vision, Chou said that he appreciates the overseas experiences particularly because they make him more aware of the possibilities in life that come with exploring.

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