Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Traces of Belief (Taiwan Season)
Chun Dance
Genre: Dance
Venue: Assemby @ Dance Base
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Choreographer Hsieh Yi-Chun’s international debut with a brand-new ensemble dance about collective ritual and individual will. Inspired by temple processions and childhood memories, her sextet uses a flow of dynamic movement to pose a key question: what anchors our faith in an ever-changing world? Merging past and present, sacred and secular, tradition and modernity, this sensitive and searching production surges with a heightened sense of spirituality. At the same time it is deeply rooted in communal humanity. The result is cross-cultural dance of great power and universal resonance
Review
Traces of Belief is a balm going into this last week at the fringe, where (despite best, high-energy intentions) many people tell me they’re flagging, old flyers are showing up in increasingly strange places throughout the city, and there are tonal shifts as some show runs finish and others begin. Here in Dance Base, Chun Dance’s six dancers sway meditatively to running water sounds, lit in deep blue light to match their costumes. It is so calm. The beginning sets the tone for choreography that is simultaneously about everything – belief, Taoism, the world around us, the elements, living life, dance itself – without ever losing its peaceful, still quality. Of course, the gentle watery swaying must give way to marching actions, plopping noises will become metal clangs and drumbeats, the blue light will change to red or gold. The show moves through a personal internal reaction to the changes of the external world, the pull of past and present, of community and solitude, enveloping us in its “everything” like a wave or a prayer.
The sextet of performers flow in together and move away – taking turns to spin out of the group pattern and return to it. The group will move to the stage’s edge and lose a member, solos or duos will take up the narrative, showcasing dance elements to the fullest. There is excellent use of rhythm throughout in spinning, stepping, and leaping movements that carry the audience through the permutations of attending to one’s own spirit in a fast-moving world. The pacing is beautifully managed – swaying and stepping are repeated to speed us up and slow us down. Colour and sound guide us through this emotional landscape, bringing in ceremonial drumming and noises that echo the five elements – creating colourfulness and vibrancy within the contemplation and taking us with them for the journey. At times the focus is float-y, with airy movements in a white lighting; at other moments they are close to the ground marching, with metal clangs and drumbeats driving forwards; underwater or ethereal spaces emerge. Feather fans from Taoist practice are utilised, in harmony with the kaleidoscope of lighting and sound design, to draw out the religious ceremony influences. They demonstrate the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds on which the dancers are walking, that their movements are invoking. The final sequence led by Hsieh Yi-Chun brings back the quiet of the opening but with the weight and knowledge of all that has happened in between. It is delicately judged and poignant.
Sometimes the changes when dancers come on and off stage, pair up, dance solo or merge back into the group lose clarity, or lack a little finesse. It is a work relying on absolute synchronicity between the dancers and any break from that or loss in quality is very easily highlighted. The ambition of the overall vision likewise will show up any places where narrative or emotion moves too quickly from one tone to another. None of it detracts from the show’s pure joy in the form and the contemplation it provides about the dance we are all doing with life. The Taiwan Season at the Edinburgh Fringe began in 2014 and has become a staple of dance at the Fringe. ‘Belief in self. Belief in dance’, dancer and choreographer Hsieh Yi-Chun tells us after their bows. And you do.
