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
Ting Yi Wang
Yu Han Cheng
Jyong Jhe Huang
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.
Ice Age was supported with a British Council Taiwan-UK cultural exchange grant, and an award from The Rainbow Initiative, supported by the National Arts and Culture Foundation (Taiwan). Special thanks to the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, and the American Institute in Taiwan. A work in process was showcased in 2020 at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts-in Weiwuying, Taiwan. Dance Base, Scotland hosted a final three-week production residency followed by the 15-performance world premiere engagement in July 2022 as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Resident Island Dance Theatre is on tour in the U.S. as part of Center Stage, a cultural diplomacy program that has hosted performing artists from abroad in the United States since 2012. To date, 38 groups from around the world have made month-long national tours. In calendar year 2023, 11 ensembles from Armenia, Argentina, Ethiopia, the Philippines, South Africa, and Taiwan will meet and share their work from coast to coast. As hosted by colleges and universities, festivals, music clubs, and cultural centers, Center Stage ensembles reach large cities and small towns. They engage with communities onstage, offstage, and online through performances, workshops, and discussions, artist-to-artist exchanges, master classes, and community gatherings, and return home to share these experiences with peers and fans.
Center Stage, a public diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs with funding provided by the U.S. Government, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts in cooperation with the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations. General management is provided by Lisa Booth Management, Inc.