17 Years cicada
Scenography and Pilot development of a dance piece
2017, Taipei Performing Arts Center, Taiwan
A collaboration with with Choreographer Ming Hwa Yeh & Sound artist Yan Sheng Wen.
Dancers: Ho-Ju Wu, Yu-Ting Fang, 盧美云 and TingSyu Lin
Cicadas find themselves to be on the lowest level of the food chain, being preyed upon by a wide range of predators once they surface, their only defense being their extreme numbers. Predators eat the first wave of the surfacing cicada until they are satisfied so that the following waves of cicada can survive just long enough to mate, lay eggs, and disappear again for another 17 years. While trying to shed their case many of them get stuck to it and die. Their life cycle could be considered tragic/hopeless, While trying to shed their case many of them get stuck to it and die. Their life could be considered tragic, unless you think of it in relation to endless cycles of birth and renewal, in relation to a much longer time span.
Photo credit: Hsin-Che Lee