Tsai Po-Cheng
LUCKY TRIMMER Tanz Performance Serie # 23
Every ups and downs in life are part of a self-searching process...Is it us who have created life or is it life that has found us?
Floating Flowers is inspired by the religious Taiwanese tradition of the water lanterns, a ritual held during the Ghost Festival, one of the most important Buddhist ceremonies practiced in Southeast Asia. Floating lanterns is a worshipping practice meant to send away bad luck, bring happiness and pay respect towards the aquatic spirits. In cultural tradition, water lanterns deliver wishes as well as regards for the dead.
“As a child, my father took me to the Ghost Festival every year. He led me to write down my wishes on the lanterns to send away with the flow of the river. I always hoped that all these wishes would come true one day. Many years later, my father died of cancer and since then I have never again attended the festival. Nevertheless two years ago, on my way to a dance lesson, I suddenly saw a picture of water lanterns on a wall. I was immediately transported back to my childhood as the memories of the Ghost Festival gushed vividly out. I came to realize how foolish I had been at the time only making wishes for myself rather than praying for my family. While I was reminiscing about my father, I also became aware of how changeable and fleeting life can be: it might perish anytime, without warning. I then decided to create a piece for my father to commemorate him and to simultaneously free myself from those haunting memories. Here is why I created Floating Flowers” - Po-Cheng Tsai
Awards
- Choice Award, 2013 Taiwan National Creative Dance Competition
- Audience prize & Gauthier Dance Production Award, 2014 International Choreography Competition, Hannover
“Still in his twenties, Tsai Po-Cheng is maturing into a fine choreographer, with a good command of technique and stage setting”- Diane Baker, Tapei Times