“Contemporary Theater Arts” Lecture Series No. 21：Creative Practice of ‚Butterfly Island‘ and the Use of Synthetic Scenes as a Methodology

“Contemporary Theater Arts” Lecture Series No. 21

Topic: Creative Practice of Butterfly Island and the Use of Synthetic Scenes as a Methodology

Speaker： He Qi-wo

Time: Dec. 14, 13:00 CET, 20:00 Beijing Time

Venue: Zoom 686 4710 3798

Abstract: Two years ago, I organized many online workshops, conferences and live broadcasts in various forms during the time of Covid-19 quaratine. I was then like an island communicating with other islands through the screen, and this kind of communication allowed us to reconnect with each other emotionally, and the islands naturally became an archipelago.

Butterfly Island thus came into being. These islands iterated in their migration from its creation during the epidemic to its post epidemic tours in Hong Kong, Beijing, Macau and Shenzhen. In Hong Kong, it was the island of games, the island of yearning, the island of women workers‘ stories, the island of mobility, the island of disappearing, the island of wish making, the island of seduction, the island of angling . It became even grander when the island of paper cuttings and the island of drag queens were added to the show in Beijing. Moreover, in Macau, it forms a butterfly island of individuals, while in Shenzhen, it slowly merges with the urban village and became an island suspended over it. I would like to share this creative process with you, as well as my working method of synthesizing the scenes. Taking Butterfly Island as an example, I will present my experience of constructing specific sites, dynamic switching of viewers and performers, and my practices in cross-cutting areas.

Short Bio： He Qi-wo, aka ErGao, is a dancer, choreographer, director and curator from Yangjiang, Guangdong. Graduating from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, he won a full scholarship of Singapore [CP] 3 to do further study in contemporary performing art criticism in 2021. Ever since he founded ErGao Dance Production Group (EGDP) in 2007, his works have constantly seen body as the core of artistic investigation and the primary medium, using diverse strategies to illuminate social and cultural identities, sex, gender and other topics in the mainland in absurd and grave way. His recent works focus on mobility of new urban migrants in Chinese society, and the issues on the public nature of dance. His representative works include Kung Hei Fat Choy series, Disco-Teca, This Is A Chicken Coop, Super Tight, Everyday Dance Movement and so on.