U-Theatre Comes to Portland

What you need to know

“There is a great and complex beauty to the drumming, sounds and silence and simple beats and intricate meshes of precisely articulated rhythms. The concentration and focus of the swaying, bounding performers is impressive, as is the purity of their material at the start.”
—The New York Times

U-Theatre will make its Portland debut with its magnificent “Meeting with Bodhisattva”, a seamless 80-minute dance-theatre work that depicts an individual’s journey toward becoming a Bodhisattva or ‘enlightened being’ in Buddhism. The 14 performers of U-Theater alternately explode in movement or repose in controlled serenity, evoking the fierceness of martial arts and the elegance of tai-chi.

Why “U”? The pronunciation of the letter “U” is similar to the word meaning “excellence” in the Chinese language. In ancient China, the same word also meant “performers”. The Zen masters in China over a thousand years ago had said that a true artist must combine “Tao” (self-improvement) with “skill” (the learning and maturity of art). Established in 1988 in Taipei, Taiwan, U Theatre has continued to give performances and to search for the self in life ever since its inception. The U-people believe that the combination of Tao and skill is the goal of their life and artistic creation.

Ever since its inception, the site with an open-air stage and a sheltered-platform, on the Laochuan Mountains in Taipei suburb of Mucha, has been their home base. As a student of the Polish director Jerzy Grotowsky, founder Rou-yu Liu had undergone professional training that took place in the woods. She started paying attention to the physical training of performers and the development of the body’s energy, then later, decided that the focal point should be “ the development of performer’s body and mind” together. In 1993, Chih-chun Huang was invited to join as a drum instructor, and he introduced the training method of “learning meditation prior to drum techniques”. This became the foundation on which the Theatre’s training and performing style is built.

Portland Shows: April 8-10, 2010, Newmark Theatre | Click here for ticket info
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