How does Taiwanese society deal with its Chinese cultural heritage today – while China threatens it daily with war and conquest? And how do other culturally Chinese-influenced societies feel about this? How do political systems affect our lives, actions and thoughts? The dance theatre piece “The Seas Between Us” by the German-based Taiwanese choreographer Lo Fang-Yun and the dancers Chou Shu-Yi and Lee Mun Wai is dedicated to the unresolved conflict between Taiwan and China, but also more comprehensively to the relationships between historically Chinese-influenced societies and in relation to the West – through the common language of dance.
In a joint process with a team of artists from Taiwan, Singapore and China, a touching duet was created, a portrait of two extraordinary dancers and the political systems that characterise them. Chou and Lee revisit their different dance biographies on stage, switching between movement and language, between togetherness and juxtaposition, and using their bodies to sense how personal life paths and global political conflicts intertwine.