Taiwan Season Online Symposium — “Connecting with Taiwan” — has opened to a strong first week of events, using digital technology to captivate audiences in the UK and Taiwan.
Kicking off the Symposium’s month-long series of events with an interview, host Donald Hutera quizzed Incandescence Dance’s Hao Cheng on his transition from physics and maths to dance and how he incorporates these elements into his creative cycle. Viewers were treated to a glimpse of his tour-ready production, Touchdown during the interview.
Featuring a new theme every week, week one’s webinars focused on “The Present and Future of Taiwan Arts and Culture Centres,” and featured industry leading professionals in the two online discussions.
Taiwan Season 2020’s first webinar, on Wednesday, was headed up by renowned producer Huey-mei Lee. Alongside Austin Wang, Director of Taipei Performing Arts Center, and Verity Leigh, Summerhall’s Programme Manager, they reflected on the prospects for international cultural collaboration in a post-pandemic world.
Huey-mei Lee returned for Friday’s webinar, accompanied by National Taichung Theatre’s Pen-Ting Huang and Shih-Chieh Chang of the Chiayi Performing Arts Center. With Dancebase Scotland’s Morag Deyes, they shared their perspectives on multi-community arts education and development, and explained how their organisations embrace it to elevate the role of performing arts in their community.
The digital format of the week’s events gave those logging on the chance to pose thoughtful questions and engage with speakers directly, with audience members joining online discussions alongside panellists from anywhere in the world.
Next week’s webinars — also on Wednesday and Friday — will address the theme of disability arts in both Taiwan and the UK, and next Tuesday’s interview will introduce Hung Chung-lai of Hung Dance and his tour-ready production Boundless.
You can keep up to date with the latest news and information from Taiwan Season by following the official Taiwan Season Online Symposium 2020 facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/taiwanseasonfringe/