12 Hours
Choreography: Tao Ye, Duan Ni
Music: Xiao He
Poetry: Zhai Yongming
Under the Veil of Sky and Sea, the Stage Exists Between Heaven and Earth and Vanishes into All Things
In September 2020, Tao Dance Theater's live art piece "Twelve Hours" was performed on the beach of Aranya in Qinhuangdao.
This was a 12-hour live art event. On this day, from sunrise to sunset, 12 dancers danced continuously for 12 hours. Twelve hours make a day, twelve months make a year, and twelve zodiac signs complete a cycle, revolving and repeating endlessly. "Twelve" is Tao Ye's title for this work, the number of dancers, and the number of hours the dance was performed.
In "Twelve Hours," twelve dancers use their bodies to engage in an ultimate experiment on "bodily awareness." From dawn to dusk, they perform twenty-four cycles of solo dances, challenging the boundaries of pain, exhaustion, and time. Waves wash over their ankles with sand and gravel, the scorching sun burns their skin as sweat beads form. The dance no longer relies on enclosed spaces but instead uses the bending of the spine, the control of muscles, and the depth of breath to converse with nature and confront the self.
As Artistic Director Tao Ye expressed, "twelve" is not just a numerical cycle but also a metaphor for the cyclical nature of time and space in Eastern culture—the alternation of day and night, the resonance between body and nature, all condensed into a practice of existence and disappearance. Documentary director Fan Xi stationed herself with cameras for seven days, using her lens to replicate the spiritual core of this artistic act, framing the struggle between sand and muscle with each shot as if writing with frames.
In September 2020, Tao Dance Theater's live art piece "Twelve Hours" was performed on the beach of Aranya in Qinhuangdao.
This was a 12-hour live art event. On this day, from sunrise to sunset, 12 dancers danced continuously for 12 hours. Twelve hours make a day, twelve months make a year, and twelve zodiac signs complete a cycle, revolving and repeating endlessly. "Twelve" is Tao Ye's title for this work, the number of dancers, and the number of hours the dance was performed.
In "Twelve Hours," twelve dancers use their bodies to engage in an ultimate experiment on "bodily awareness." From dawn to dusk, they perform twenty-four cycles of solo dances, challenging the boundaries of pain, exhaustion, and time. Waves wash over their ankles with sand and gravel, the scorching sun burns their skin as sweat beads form. The dance no longer relies on enclosed spaces but instead uses the bending of the spine, the control of muscles, and the depth of breath to converse with nature and confront the self.
As Artistic Director Tao Ye expressed, "twelve" is not just a numerical cycle but also a metaphor for the cyclical nature of time and space in Eastern culture—the alternation of day and night, the resonance between body and nature, all condensed into a practice of existence and disappearance. Documentary director Fan Xi stationed herself with cameras for seven days, using her lens to replicate the spiritual core of this artistic act, framing the struggle between sand and muscle with each shot as if writing with frames.
