China Daily Global Edition (USA)
POET IN MOTION
He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother as his parents were not in a happy marriage.
Then, one day, when he was 12 he saw a dance program on TV and imitated the dancer to do a split.
His grandmother was impressed as she had never seen a boy his age do this.
So she sent him to the local dance school in Chongqing in Southwest China.
There, he received training in Chinese dance and a bit of ballet.
Later, he joined the performance ensemble of Shanghai police.
But after the excitement of the first few months, Tao soon found that he was not very happy there.
This was until he visited the Jin Xing Dance Company in Shanghai.
“I remember the floor of the rehearsal room was covered with a white carpet. Dancers were lying there stretching their bodies. The sun was shining over them. This scene changed my idea about dance,” he says.
“The training for classical dancing required me to jump high, to split, to make my body tense, to fight gravity. I did not know dancing could be so relaxing. You just listen to your body and follow your heart,” he says.
Tao joined the Jin Xing Dance Company in 2003.
“I then realized that while earlier I had been required to
Tao Ye,
founder and choreographer, TAO Dance Theater dance as a job, now I had the motivation to dance, to enjoy it.”
In 2005, he moved to Beijing where contemporary dance has more fans.
With the Beijing Modern Dance Company, his motivation and potential soon got full play. He even started to choreograph.
The Beijing Modern Dance Company hosts a festival every year. There, some foreign choreographers who loved Tao’s work offered him a chance to travel abroad with them. But Tao declined the invitation.
Then, in March 2008, he and his girlfriend, now his wife Duan Ni, and another dancer Wang Hao, formed TAO Dance Theater.
They started with a performance for three dancers Weight x 3, which premiered in Beijing in September 2009. They made it into a DVD and sent it to some festivals.
His unique choreography soon attracted attention and drew invitations.
The Singapore Arts Festival, the Norrland Opera of Sweden and the Dansmakers Amsterdam of the Netherlands commissioned him to create 2, for Tao and Duan.
Then, he started to explore other numbers. And the young company soon became the most sought-after Chinese contemporary dance company world-wide.
So far it has toured more than 40 countries, and it was the first Chinese contemporary dance company to perform at the Lincoln Center Festival.
The United Kingdom’s Sadler’s Wells commissioned Tao three consecutive years to perform at the event.
Speaking about Tao, Lin Hwai-Min, founder and artistic director of Cloud Gate, the renowned Taiwan dance company, says: “He is the most promising contemporary dancer on the Chinese mainland. His works belong to the 21st century. They amaze and provoke deep reflection.”
Sculptor Xiang Jing says: “In an era of entertainment where dance is losing its dignity and creativity, Tao’s dances make us return to serious discussion, make us recognize and salute true creativity.”
Cui Jian, China’s godfather of rock ’n’ roll compares Tao to “a devoted monk, a hardworking migrant worker, a rational philosopher and a sensitive ‘madman’”.
I did not know dancing could be so relaxing. You just listen to your body and follow your heart.”