OBSERVER: Fringe Focus Taiwan
Fringe Focus Taiwan 2025 is set for Melbourne with ‘boundary-pushing works for audiences and participants of all ages, celebrating the full cycle of life through bold contemporary art’ from September 30 – October 19 at various venues.
Now in its sixth year, Fringe Focus Taiwan features three works by Taiwanese artists that embody the 2025 Festival theme Action Heroes, spotlighting groups often overlooked on our stages: the very young, and older adults.
Firstly, Free Steps – Swinging Years by Horse / Su Wei-Chia October 15–18 at the Meat Market – Blackwood Box.
One of Taiwan’s most celebrated choreographers, Su Wei-Chia (General Director of acclaimed contemporary dance company Horse) brings his visionary project Free Steps – Swinging Years to Melbourne. After creating a “dance of the masses” with nearly 100 older dancers in Taiwan, Su will now collaborate with up to 100 Melburnians aged 65+ through a three-week residency at the Meat Market.
Participants will share their lived experiences through movement workshops that culminate in a large-scale public performance. This moving project celebrates the beauty, rhythm and wisdom of ageing bodies, transforming life stories into dance and redefining what it means to be an Action Hero.
Secondly, Free Steps – Grand Canyon by Horse / Su Wei-Chia October 1 at the Queen Victoria Market, October 5 Fed Square – Power Move, October 9 at the Melbourne Museum.
In a duet between dancer and paper, Free Steps – Grand Canyon pushes dance beyond traditional stages and into public space.The work unfolds like a living gallery installation: physical movement becomes sculpture, rhythm becomes landscape, and the dancer’s body converses with material. Founded in 2004, Horse is a leading force in Taiwanese dance, recognised internationally with awards including the Taishin Arts Award (Taiwan’s grand arts prize) and Germany’s Kurt Jooss Preis. Under Artistic Director Chen Wu-Kang and General Director Su Wei-Chia, the company is acclaimed for its fearless creativity and cross-cultural projects.
Finally, We Need a Flower by Double and Cross Theatre, October 17-18 at ArtPlay, Birrarung Marr.
Taiwan’s pioneering baby theatre company Double and Cross Theatre presents We Need A Flower, a gentle and joyful performance for babies aged 0–2 and their families. Choreographed by company founder Tso Han-Chieh – a theatre-maker and mother who established the Taiwan Baby Theatre Lab – the work draws on contemporary and improvised dance techniques to reflect the physical development of babies. Structured around three stages – gravity, bones and future – the performance explores life’s interconnected cycles with tenderness and wonder. Presented at ArtPlay, We Need a Flower offers a poetic, sensory experience for our youngest audiences.
Melbourne Fringe CEO and Creative Director Simon Abrahams says: “Fringe Focus Taiwan is one of the jewels of our Curated Program. These works remind us that heroism can be found in every body – from our littlest citizens to our eldest. That’s what Fringe is all about: celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday.”
More information at melbournefringe.com.au
Cheryl Threadgold