Ink - Huang Yi Studio +

Dance meets technology and the art of calligraphy by inventor/choreographer Huang Yi

In their newest collaboration, Ink, choreographer Huang Yi and audiovisual pioneer Ryoichi Kurokawa dismantle and reconstruct the lines from a hundred artworks in renowned calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze’s “Silent Music” series, exploring the various texture between body, sound, visual, and space.

Hovering between delicate and frantic dynamics, Huang digs deeper into his cultural roots and reveals a wild movement language, turning dancers’ bodies into brushes that paint and leave marks on stage. With speed and a ferocious vocabulary, dancers churn like a vortex in one moment, only to become flowing liquid in the next. Kurokawa transforms the inkblots into luminous tracks, echoing and merging with the unique brushstrokes of Tong, constructing a continuous flow of paintings via stunning holographic projection.

Combining Huang’s explosive and precise language and Kurokawa’s meticulous and sophisticated artistry, Ink is a work that crosses borders and fuses analog and digital, reflecting the harmonic tension between the realms of ancient practice and future design.

The groundbreaking Huang Yi was last seen in Abu Dhabi in The Arts Center’s inaugural season in his acclaimed work with an industrial robot, HUANG YI & KUKA.

Ink is an original production of Huang Yi Studio +, co-commissioned by the National Taichung Theater and National Theater, Taipei in Taiwan and had its world premiere in June 2023.

Huang Yi

Taiwanese dancer, choreographer, inventor, and videographer Huang Yi’s pioneering work is steeped in his fascination with the partnership between humans and robots. He interweaves continuous movement with mechanical and multimedia elements to create a form of dance which corresponds with the flow of data, effectively making the performer a dancing instrument. Named by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to Watch,” Huang was immersed in the arts at a young age, spending much of his childhood in his parents’ studio watching them teach tango and learning to paint alongside his father. Huang has been Artist-in-Residence of the National Theater & Concert Hall, the National Performing Arts Center, Taiwan, and is widely considered one of Asia’s most prolific choreographers. 

Huang’s groundbreaking and award-winning work, HUANG YI & KUKA, in which he and his dancers perform alongside an industrial robot he programmed, has opened the Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), TED Conference (Vancouver), and toured globally since 2015 including in Australia, the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the UAE. 

Huang Yi premiered Under the Horizon, a hybrid opera, in collaboration with Berlin-based Ryoichi Kurokawa and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, in Holland and Taiwan in 2018. In February 2019 he premiered A Million Miles Away at Taiwan's celebrated National Theater. His latest work, Ink, premiered at the National Taichung Theater and the National Theater in Taipei in June 2023.

Creative & Production Team:
Artistic Direction, Concept & Choreography: Huang Yi
Calligraphy: Tong Yang-Tze
Audiovisuals: Ryoichi Kurokawa
Technical Director: Lin Chia-Liang
Producer: Wu Min-Fang
Representation: Ichun Yeh, Sozo
Worldwide Representation and Booking for Huang Yi: Sozo 

Ink is an original production of Huang Yi Studio +, co-commissioned by the National Taichung Theater and National Theater, Taipei in Taiwan and had its world premiere in June 2023.

The performance is made possible by the generous support of the Ministry of Culture (Taiwan)

Special Thanks to:
Multinational Company Long Dedicated to Community Investment
CANJUNE
Taiwan Top Performing Arts Group Project, National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan)
Hong Foundation
National Center for High-Performance Computing (Taiwan)
Industrial Technology Research Institute (Taiwan)