Ice Age is a production of Resident Island Dance Theatre (Pingtung County, Taiwan).

Artistic Director and Choreographer
Chung-An Chang

Co-Choreographer
Maylis Arrabit

Performers
Maylis Arrabit, Yi-Chen Juan,
Shih-Yun Fang, Yu Cheng Cheng

Artistic Mentor
Morag Deyes, MBE

Music Composer
Thomas William Hill

International Development Producer
Jih-Wen Yeh / Step Out Arts (2019-June 2021)

Producer and Touring Manager
“Sasa” Shu Lin Hsiao

Lighting Design and Stage Manager
Hsin-Ying Tsai

Accessibility Assistants
Ching Ying Weng, Yi Yen Huang

Costume Designer
Li Yu Wang

About Ice Age
Ice Age is an emotionally thrilling, physically integrated quartet co-choreographed by RIDT's Artistic Director Chung-An Chang and French dance maker Maylis Arrabit. The 55-minute piece is performed by two dancers in wheelchairs (one of whom is Arrabit) and two standing dancers. As the world locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic, the work took shape–to explore the different ways that people navigate and connect in their own cultural environments. It evokes the coexistence between parallel realities, separated by space-time and at the same time, united by it. Ice Age challenges external forces and shows us the potential of a physically, mentally, and emotionally integrated world.

“All the things that make up daily life and relationships are changing. That’s the main concept,” says Chang. Ice Age is “a choreographic experiment to uncover, recognize, and relate to this new moment of change in motion not just for some, but for us all.”

Ice Age is a 55-minute work that is performed without intermission.

Taiwan’s Resident Island Dance Theatre layers the commonplace, unconsidered movements of everyday life to foreground limitations and suggests how we all might break free. Founded and directed by maverick choreographer Chung-An Chang in 2010, the company is one of few professional theaters outside of Taiwan’s capital city, Taipei, to tour abroad, collaborate internationally with contemporary dance makers, and integrate dancers with disabilities into its company.

Chang sees dance as a way to communicate deeply with others, in moments when words fail and when our experiences may not overlap. His explorations often start by noticing our movement habits–the motions of a factory line worker, the everyday routine of quarantine–and shaking loose human insights, taking his dancers through moments of entropy and organization, crisis, and harmony.

"I'm not a person good with words,” says Chang. “I use my body to express myself and hope to touch others by letting the movements speak for themselves. Although I lost my vision while learning to dance, dance has really become the light of my life." 

Reckoning with external forces, Resident Island Dance Theatre models an inclusive world.