In step with innovation

A young dancer realizes his creative dreams. Chen Nan reports.

It started with Tao Ye imitating yoga poses he saw on TV at age 12 just for fun. He was surprised to discover his body's exceptional flexibility. So was his grandmother, who told him, "You should be a dancer." Her suggestion turned out to be a prophecy. "Many children dreamed of becoming a scientist, a teacher or an architect. But I had no idea about what I was going to do when I grew up," the 26-year-old Chongqing native says. "But when I enrolled in dance school, I knew this would be my career. I have passion and unlimited energy when I am dancing. I believe it's fate." It was Tao's grandmother - a hardnosed lifelong politician - who took him to the school.

Tao believes the encouragement was meant to compensate for the fact that his mother never became a dancer despite her beauty and graceful figure.

"She wanted to be a dancer but compromised with my grandmother and became a worker," Tao says.

"They both wanted to vicariously fulfill their dreams by letting me dance."

But Tao's father, a kungfu instructor, was a strict traditionalist who believed dancing was a "girl thing".

The family also struggled to pay the 50,000-yuan ($7,715) tuition. But the school waived part of the fees because Tao was talented and in good physical shape.

In 1998, he started at the Chongqing Dance School, where he learned classical Chinese and ethnic group dances.

Tao joined the Shanghai Military Song and Dance Troupe four years later. But he found the choreography to be formulaic and repetitious. So, against his family's wishes, he left to start an independent career.

"I like to be free to do my own work," Tao explains.

"The experiences with the school and troupe taught me to fully know my body and discover my potential. I knew I needed to create myself without limits."

Tao chose the capital as the launch pad for his dream.

He danced with both the Jin Xing Dance Theater and Beijing Modern Dance Company before founding TAO Dance Theater in 2008.

He absorbed pioneering modern dances and watched myriad performances, including those by German choreographer Sasha Waltz and Chinese choreographer Shen Wei, who was the principal choreographer of the Beijing Olympic Games' Opening Ceremony.

"I focused on dancing techniques until I realized dance is a belief, a creation of the performer's soul," he says.

It was belief, he says, that inspired him to found the theater with a classmate. He has continued experimenting with sources of inspiration, he says, and has explored the impossibilities of body and how they relate to dancing.

Tao believes modern dance belongs to every individual and is based on his personality.

"Our bodies belong to ourselves, and each one is different. What we long for is to use the body to create and actualize the possibilities," he says.

But the process has been confusing, he says.

"Do you think people will understand?" many of his peers asked.

Tao says, "It's important for me to face different challenges. Do we just live day to day or do we dare to push beyond our boundary?"

His financial situation was dire when he started the theater, he says.

"One day, all I had in my pocket was 1 yuan," he recalls.

"Those tough days drove me to ignore the material world. I learned I can be happy without much money."

TAO Dance Theater's first show was at a gallery in Nanluogu Xiang, a famous hutong in downtown Beijing. Tao's Do Beautify intended to "use bodies to connect with space". It shocked audiences and was met with praise and criticism.

The theater later performed Tao's duet Weight at Beijing's Caochangdi Art Workstation. The theater toured the country with Weight x2 and gradually built up its reputation.

Tao also invited indie musician Xiao He and video artists to create Body Space Installation and performed in the capital's 798 art district. His work Sketch premiered at Beijing Modern Dance Week, and Weight x3 was performed at the National Theater Company of China's East Pioneer Theater.

Tao says his prolificity comes from his belief that "dance is a kind of soul mate. It's a basic physical need for me."

The theater staged more than 30 performances in 2008 because Tao was eager to understand the situation of modern dance in different cities around China.

"I had a special intention for foreign audiences - showing modern China," he says.

"We didn't want to just show lanterns and qipao (traditional blouses). We wanted to show a fusion of ancient and contemporary culture."

Tao started a series of free modern dance workshops in Beijing in 2009 to promote the art form.

And the project he undertook with Chinese experimental theater director Lin Zhaohua, Parodie, was performed in Brussels, Belgium, during the 2009 Europalia International Art Festival.

Tao's latest duet, 2, which took him a year to finish, will premiere at the Singapore Arts Festival on June 3 and 4, and will be followed by the theater's world tour.

Tao says the new work had no name initially, and 2 simply means two dancers.

"I don't want to use a name to narrow the audiences' understanding. A good dance has the power to let the viewers temporarily forget who they are," he says.

Tao compares his career to boiling water.

"It takes time to reach the boiling point," he says.

"We used to pursue and imitate Western culture, but I think it's time for Chinese artists in different fields to let their voices be heard," he continues.

"I'm happier than at any other moment in my life. I have a compass that guides me toward something I long for."

Offstage, he is like any other young man in China, he says.

But he transforms onstage, which he says is one of the most fascinating parts about being a dancer.

"When the theater goes dark and it's only me standing under a beam of light, I am alone in the world," he says.