Speakers

Donald Hutera has written reviews, previews, interviews and cultural commentary for a wide variety of international publications (including The Times of London) and books since 1977. He has been a ‘judge’ on numerous performing arts festival and other panels; mentored aspiring critics for, among others, Aerowaves dance platform and the British Council; and been guest speaker or writer-in residence at dance, theatre and circus gatherings world-wide including ArtsCross (UK/China/Taiwan, 2009-2103) and Aerowaves Springback (Europe, since 2014). He has curating, presenting and producing experience in the UK via GOlive and Chelsea Arts Collective (CAC) and received several performance-making commissions from Guardians of Doubt (GoD) and InTRANSIT Festival. Currently a member of the mature person’s performance group Posh Club * Dance Club, he is also a devising performer in Rhiannon Faith Company’s live production DROWNTOWN and its digital prologue, DROWNTOWN LOCKDOWN. His involvement with Taiwan Season as PR and marketing manager began in 2016.

She previously served at the National Theater and Concert Hall (NTCH) from its 1987 opening, and was Artistic Director 2014-2018. Along with overseeing venue management, programming, education and marketing for decades, she also curated such acclaimed NTCH festivals as Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA), Dance in Autumn, International Theatre Festival and Innovation Series that earned recognition for Taipei as an important platform for the performing arts. Dedicated to commissioning major creative productions, and building bridges between audiences and artists world-wide, she is a leading player in the development of contemporary dance and theatre in Taiwan.

He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Stage and Lighting Design from the University of South California, USA. He worked as Senior Production Manager and Stage Designer for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (‘Moon Water,’ ‘Songs of the Wanderers’) and designer or technical director on productions by other troupes including Performance Workshop, Ping-Fong Acting Troupe, Contemporary Legend Theatre and Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group. Among selected honours and awards: chief stage designer for the opening/closing ceremony of Taipei Deaflympics (2009); jury member of Prague Quadrennial and convener of the Taiwan team, with the Taiwan Hall project winning the Gold Medal for Best Use of Technology (2007); Belvedere International Achievement Award presented at Poland’s Presidential Palace in Warsaw (2004); and the National Award of Arts presented by the National Culture and Arts Foundation (2014).

Verity Leigh is Programme Manager of the key Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue Summerhall. She also works, since 2012, in various roles (tour booking and management, financial management, fundraising and organisational development) for Magnetic North, which creates and develops new work, and the award-winning children’s theatre company Wee Stories, for which she is also producer. Additionally she has been a freelance Third Sector Manager in Edinburgh since 2011.

Pen-Ting Huang entered the performing arts field in 2003 and, in the past, focused on programme planning and marketing principally at National Theater and Concert Hall, Taipei. More recent concerns are how to communicate and encourage an interest in the performing arts; offer more arts experiences for people by sharing participatory practices; and provide opportunities for emerging artists to deliver their ideas and develop work. Past and present roles at the National Taichung Theater are Manager of Marketing and Public Relations (2017-2019) and Manager of Arts Education (since 2019).

He was from 1991 a civil servant at the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) of the Executive Yuan of Taiwan (ROC). In 1998 Chang returned to Chiayi from Taipei as Chief of News Section and, in 2002, served as the Chief of Visual Arts Section. In 2003 Chang was appointed to the project of the under-construction CPAC, then took up the role of director upon its completion in 2005. CPAC co-operates with other districts and cities in Taiwan, building connections between theatres with the underlying strategy of engineering an arts ecosystem. To do this it is essential to cultivate local performing groups and audiences while also introducing external resources into the many areas into which CPAC reaches.

Morag Deyes has been Artistic Director of Dance Base, Scotland's National Centre for Dance in Edinburgh, since 1994. After training in many genres, she danced professionally, taught and choreographed around the world. Deyes was also Artistic Director of the Bath Fringe Festival from 1990-1994. She has directed the Dance Base shows Off Kilter, the Holyrood Palace Garden Party Celebrations and programmed the Urban Dance stages for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations 2004-06. A Scottish representative on the UK National Dance Network (NDN), she received an MBE for Services to Dance in Scotland in the HRH Queen Elizabeth’s New Years Honours List 2007 and the prestigious Spirit of the (Edinburgh) Fringe Award in 2009. International projects include Norddance, a showcase/exchange between Scotland and Scandinavia, and working with artists from India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Palestine. Deyes founded Scotland’s first semi-professional elder touring dance company PRIME, currently housed at Dance Base.

Lee-Chun Yao is a theatre director, producer and festival director as well as film researcher and curator. Yao has been the director of Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre and Body Phase Studio since 2007-2008. He has long been a planner and producer of performance art, computer music and experimental film of/for the disabled. Devoted to cultivating artistic exchange between Taiwan and other Asian and European countries, Yao previously served as a consultant for Macao Arts Festival. From 2018 to 2019 he co-curated the artist collaboration platform ARTWAVE. He has worked with visually-impaired performers since 2003 and, in 2009, founded the workshop project Play Can Illuminate to further develop possibilities in disability theatre.

I-Lien Ho gained her MA in Performance Studies from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, an MPhil in Chinese Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Performance Practice from the University of Exeter. She performed in ‘30P: Not easy to read’ with Shakespeare's Wild Sisters Group, New York Butoh Festival . Her durational one-to-one performance was curated by Marina Abramovic at Plymouth Arts Centre (UK). She was guest artist-lecturer at the drama department of New York University and associate lecturer at the University of Exeter (UK). Currently she is assistant professor in the Department of Theatre Arts at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan.

Sandra Tavali of the Siraya people (aborigine in Taiwan), began her music training with her father, Professor Mao-sung Lee, studied in the Music Department of Soochow University, Tainan Technology University and earned a Master of Music degree in computer music from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Her music crosses over between classical and fine art, film, and documentaries. A former keyboardist of the classical ensemble Indulge and the metal band Chthonic, she was also composer for the Discovery Channel documentary ‘Unknown Taiwan.’ In 2013 she began theatre computer music workshops, encouraging young musicians to deep-think creativity and collaborate with other international artists. Her compositions have featured in many conferences and festivals world-wide. Tavali is currently a curator of sound and music at Guling Street Avant-Garde Theatre, Taipei and a faculty member of Fu-Jen University.

She trained and worked in social work for over 13 years in different establishments across Strathclyde Regional Council. Since 1994 her focus has been working with people with learning disabilities using dance, creative movement and music. Anderson believes these art forms offer strong benefits to disabled people, providing an opportunity for social integration and encouraging individuals to achieve their full artistic potential. She founded Indepen-dance in 1996 on the principle of access, participation and integration. As Artistic Director she provides a practical and creative framework, and her role is pivotal for the continued success and development of the company.

River Lin is an artist working across the contexts of visual art, dance and performance. His work has been presented by the Palais de Tokyo and Centre National de la Danse in Paris, KANAL- Centre Pompidou in Brussels, M+ Museum in Hong Kong, Rockbund Art Museum and Ming Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai, 2016 Taipei Biennial and Liveworks Festival in Sydney. In 2017 Lin initiated and headed the Asia Discovers Asia Meeting for Contemporary Performance (ADAM), by and with Taipei Performing Arts Center, to foster cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchange. In 2019 he co-curated the inaugural edition of Camping Asia in collaboration with the Centre National de la Danse of France. Born in 1984 in Taiwan, Lin currently lives and works between Paris and Taipei.

Wu-Kang Chen, born in Taiwan, began a hugely influential 12-year collaboration with New York based choreographer Eliot Feld in 2001. Chen co-founded HORSE Dance Theatre as its artistic director in 2004. Significant works include ‘Velocity’ (2007, Taishin Arts Award) and ‘2 Men’ (2012, Kurt Jooss Preis) which toured Asia, the USA and Europe. In 2009 he was dance director for the opening of the Deaflympics. In 2011 he started collaborating with artists in various fields, and five years later began an intercultural/dance dialogue with Thai master Pichet Klunchun that resulted in the 2018 presentation ‘Behalf.’ They are currently collaborating on the three-year project ‘An expedition to the embodiment of Ramayana.’ In 2019 Chen was stage director of ‘The show must go on’ in Taipei Arts Festival and conceived, choreographed and danced in ‘Thank you so much for your time’ in the DAGUAN International Performing Arts Festival.

Prototype Paradise is an ensemble of theatre and performance practitioners based in Taiwan. The company encourages theatre-makers to work in everyday-life scenarios and explore dialogues with people from all walks of life. Productions have been made in public spaces such as night markets, scooter repair shops, clothes-washing ponds and alongside city garbage-collecting trucks. Yoyo conceives and initiates creative projects for Prototype Paradise and also works as an independent manager and curator with various art organizations in Taiwan. She holds a MA from Utrecht School of the Arts.

Faith Tan has 17-plus years of programming, producing and management experience in the performing arts. As Head of Programme Development at Dance House Helsinki, she is in charge of the house’s programming, including its international seasons. She recently launched the artist development project SPARKS, which will lead to the commission of six premieres. Prior to moving to Helsinki she was Head of Dance and Theatre in Singapore’s national arts centre, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. Tan led the annual dance festival/series da:ns, the largest international platform for dance presentations in Southeast Asia. She is a founding member of the Asian Network for Dance (AND+) and a member of the European Dancehouse Network (under Dance House Helsinki). She holds a Masters degree in Arts and Cultural Management.

Fangas Nayaw was born in Taitung, Taiwan. As artist, director, choreographer and performer he probes into the dynamics of audience participation and the possibilities of new technology while constantly reflecting on his indigenous identity and cultural tradition as Amis. These are seen in ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ (2009), ‘Farewell, Lin-Ban’ (2013), ‘Tsou’ (‘Name of Tribe,’ 2015), ‘Maataw’ (‘Floating Island,’ 2016), ‘si, kaen’ (‘Eating,’ 2017), ‘XXIX Summer Universiade Opening Program I’ (2017) and ‘Alikakay’ (‘The Giant,’ 2019). His work ‘A Song within Us’ was in the SXSW VR competition 2020 and the performance work ‘masingkiay: Co-creating a Collective’ in Cosmopolis #2 at the Pompidou Centre, Paris in 2019. His directorial/choreographic work ‘Mailulay’ won a 14th Taishin Arts Award in 2016.

Chi-Wei Lin, born in Taipei in 1971, is a transdisciplinary artist with academic training in French literature, cultural anthropology and media art. Since the early ‘90s Lin has been involved in Taiwan’s counter-cultural scene. He was a founding member of the noise band Z.S.L.O. and programmed various alternative art festivals. In 2004 Lin initiated the Tape Music series, later called IDCM (Interhuman Dynamic Coordinated Models), which are synchronous protocols which allow individual autonomy in the forming of collective sound works. Lin’s book ‘Beyond Sound Art – The Avant Garde, Sound Machine and the Modernity of Hearing’ was published in 2012. Lin’s art works have been shown in various biennales and museums including Tate Modern, Pompidou Center and PSA Shanghai along with such non-art sites such as schools, factories, churches, temples, bars and live houses in countries around the world. Lin lives and works in Shanghai, Taipei and Paris.

Kathryn Weir is the former Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. In 2016 she founded ‘Cosmopolis,’ a platform for activities ranging from residencies to exhibitions and engaging with multi-disciplinary, research-based practices that link critical vocabularies with reconceived geographies and histories. From 2006 until 2014 she led the international art and cinémathèque curatorial areas at the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane and was one of the curators of the 5th, 6th and 7th Asia Pacific Triennials of Contemporary Art. She has published many books, exhibition catalogues and studies of the work of an array of contemporary artists. In 2020 Weir was appointed Director of the MADRE contemporary art museum in Naples.

Cheng Hua Chiang received her MFA in arts administration and management from Taipei National University of the Arts and has since dedicated herself to theatre and art documentaries management for nearly 17 years. She is Head of Programming & Production for Pulima Art Festival, and has worked for indigenous performing arts development and cross-cultural communication at the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation, Taiwan since 2013. Over time Chiang has managed domestic and international programmes and productions, new talent projects and touring at home and abroad.

Watan Tusi comes from the Lishan village of Zhuoxi in Hualien, Taiwan. He has been working in dance for almost two decades. He founded TAI Body Theatre to present creations based upon his observations of social phenomena, with the body as the medium. ‘Seeing’ for TAI is about exploring its own cultural strength based on tradition but also within the current cultural context.

Feng-Chih Tsou has been working in the performing arts field, with a focus on contemporary dance and theatre, for years. Her recent dance project as producer – ‘Terrace on the Hill,’ a cross-culture collaboration between French percussionist Roland Auzet and indigenous choreographer Watan Tusi from Taiwan – won first prize in the Pulima Art Award for the performing arts in 2018. She is currently producing a new dance co-production project between TAI Body Theatre and Eko Supriyanto, a leading dancer and choreographer in Indonesia.

Dondon Hounwn, Director of Elug Art Corner and Phpah Art Festival, is also head of the curatorial team for the 2020 Pulima Art Festival 2020. Inheriting his mission of Smapux in 2016, he became a practitioner of ‘medicinal life’ and started exhibiting spiritual healing powers via traditional medical ritual. He also plays the jaw harp and xylophone. As a cultural inheritor of songs and ritual, Hounwn integrates traditional performance into contemporary arts forms as performance art and video art. The spirit of the Smapux totem is being transformed into symbols of messages with a unique creative connotation.

Ashley Yihsin Chang has over two decades of experience as art curator, arts manager and co-ordinator in museums, government and diplomatic institutions, community arts centres and art consultant agencies in Taiwan and Perth, Western Australia. She is currently Engagement Programmes Curator at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) and project co-ordinator of ‘Dream Plan Do’ at the Community Arts Network, which aims to support arts projects that bring culturally and linguistically diverse community voices to the fore. Before emigrating to Australia, Chang was Deputy Director of the Taipei Artist Village (2005-2008) and Cultural Programme Manager at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). She is currently undertaking the 2019 Leadership and Governance Programme through the Office of Multicultural Interests in the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries.

Anchi Lin, an artist of Taiwanese Hō-ló and indigenous Atayal heritage, completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Art from Simon Fraser University and is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in New Media Art at the Taipei National University of the Arts. In 2017 she returned to Taiwan with the aim of reconnecting with her long-lost indigenous worldview via video, performance and installation art. Her works negotiate and interface with concepts such as language, identity, gender, environment and cultural norms. Recent activities include the 2nd Langasan International Performance Art Festival (LIPAF) in Taiwan; the Un-Ripening: Recipes for Decolonization group exhibition at Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art in Canada; the 24th Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF) in Japan; and WAWA - Art in the Contemporary Pacific at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.

Jacob Boehme, Melbourne-born and raised, is multi-disciplinary theatre-maker and choreographer of the Narangga and Kaurna Nations, South Australia who creates work for stage, screen and large-scale public events and festivals. He is the founding Creative Director of YIRRAMBOI Festival, and the recipient of the 2018 Green Room Award for Curatorial Contribution to Contemporary and Experimental Arts. Boehme has led the artistic direction of ‘Tanderrum‘ (Melbourne Festival), ‘Boon Wurrung Ngargee’ (Yalukit Willam Festival), ‘Thuwathu’ (Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair) and ‘Geelong After Dark’ and choreographed for the opening ceremonies of Dreamtime at the G, FINA World Swimming Championships and the Cricket World Cup. As writer and performer of the critically-acclaimed solo ‘Blood on the Dance Floor’ he received the 2017 Green Room Award for Best Independent Production. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Dance House and Polyglot Theatre and is a member of the Ministry of Culture Taiwan South East Asia Advisory Panel.