Between the Dragon and the Tiger: how to maximize your energy in public
by Coman Poon & Naishi Wang
THURSDAY OCTOBER 15 2020
12:30 PM
5:30 PM
LOCATION: University Court outside Bata Library at Trent University
(This location is barrier free. Paid parking available, credit and debit only. Reachable by bus.)
SHOW LENGTH: 30 mins
*Please arrive 15-20 minutes early
NOTE: THIS PERFORMANCE WILL CONTINUE UNLESS RAIN BECOMES TO SEVERE
Image by Coman Poon and Naishi Wang
Between the Dragon and the Tiger: how to maximize your energy in public is a new dance/ritual collaboration between two Chinese-Canadian artists that enjoy working site-specifically. We offer an artistic approach that embodies an exploratory and culturally-hybridized process that centres on feng shui principles of establishing and sustaining environmental harmony. In this time of conflict and separation, we invite all to interact and dialogue with each other, as a bridge to intercultural understanding.
Literally translated as “wind-water” in English, feng shui (Traditional Chinese: 風水/Simplified Chinese: 风水) is a form of Chinese geomancy, an ancient metaphysical divination practice of working with terrestrial energy. Briefly known as a “mystery patterned study”, the contemporary practice traces the energy circulation with/in built form with the aim to bring good fortune and personal nourishment. Seeking outward and internal harmony, it is a belief system and an everyday practice embraced by the people in China for generations.
At the time of early British colonial contact, feng shui was the guiding principle Chinese Emperors relied on for the location of whole communities, bridges and other infrastructure such as canals. It was an applied worldview that infuriated Westerners trying to build railroads to make opportunistic inroads into China. With the People’s Republic of China now a global economic power, it seems fitting to bring this old practice full circle as an homage to ancestral Chinese wisdom.
(Show More...)
The Triangle Collective comprises of Edgardo Moreno (Hamilton, Ontario), Coman Poon (Toronto, Ontario) and Olga Barrios (Santa Marta, Colombia). As a collective of im/migrants from Chile, Hong Kong and Colombia, we conjoin the movements, aesthetics and sonorities of a seasoned choreographer, a visual/performance artist and a musician/composer. Since 2020, we have embarked on a new research and development for a digital artworks platform entitled Triangle Project: Art & Life in Times of COVID.
[ field ] is an ongoing series of performance and installation collaborations between architect-installationist Brian Smith and performance artist/live art researcher Coman Poon. As a site for numinous research and a death meditation on intergenerational, queer and cross-cultural sites of love, 1+1+0: performances in preparation for death premiered at Dances @ MuCCC, Rochester (2018); closed The Gathering (2018) with Mohawk Elder Danny Beaton (Tkaronto), Su-Feh Lee (Vancouver), Charles Koroneho (Aotearoa), Tedd Robinson (Bristol), Sylvie Tourangeau (Sainte-Agathe-de-Lotbinière) & was featured at Pi*llOry, an LGBTQ+ performance art series in Toronto (2020).
Inspired by a maternal ancestral lineage in Feng Shui | 風水 (Chinese geomancy), his performance and visual art practice currently explores the ‘ritual body’ in relationship to natural and built environments. Aside from current studies of biofield tuning and toning with Eileen McKusick, his collaboration with dancer/choregrapher Naishi Wang offers an interdisciplinary platform for this embodied research and life/art practice.
He writes about live art, dance and performance and profiles diverse artistic practices as a journalistic act of re-centring on the margins.
Naishi Wang
Born in Changchun, China, Naishi Wang began with Chinese Classical dance and Chinese Folk dances training at Jilin College of Art. In 2004, moved to C
anada and joined Toronto Dance Theater for nine years. In 2015 the award-winning performer was inspired to work and develop as an independent choreographer. With a belief that performing arts create an imaginary perspective and push the form of what dance could be in the 21st century. His creative drive started with a solo work entitled Taking Breath, a work about using air as a form of communication. From the beginning to the present, he received much support and many invitations across Canada and had a German Premiere in Hamburg. In 2020, Naishi is one of the residency artists at La Serre Montreal and international creative collaboration with a UK based dance artist Jean Abreu.
Besides his own projects. Naishi is focusing on how to share his personal nature perspective with colleagues throughout different communities. He is a guest choreographer for Nostos dance collective and co-founder of 3+ collective, Returning River Collective and Temporary Collective. http://www.naishi.dance/
(Show Less...)
Tickets:
Get tickets HERE
An outdoor fall performance series to be presented between October 2-18 2020 in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong. The Pivot Series is intended for socially distanced outdoor audiences in response to COVID-19 measures. Public Energy Performing Arts has partnered with the Peterborough ReFrame Film Festival to create a short documentary about the Pivot Series for screening at the 2021 ReFrame festival.
The Pivot Series is inviting artists to re-imagine existing work, or create new work for an outdoor site-specific public setting in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong. Locations include parking lots, parks, park pavilions and many more. Performance works are 15-30 minutes in length.
FOR MORE INFO ABOUT THE PIVOT SERIES CLICK HERE.
