Twig, Trunk, Tree

Filmmaker: Chang Liu (Leo) 

Performer: Chang Liu (Leo) 

Music: The Art Of Boredom 2: 07. No time by The Basic Income Earth Network 

Shooting Location: Horno Mountain, Hornön, Sweden

Produced in 2021 

Concept: 

Twig, Trunk, Tree manifested as part of the necessary self-inquiry that aorse within the turmoil of striving to question myself, my relation to my dancing body, and more universally, the broader dance industry itself. Over the age of 30, chronic pain, held trauma, enforced manufactured youthfulness, capability, speedy recovery, and durability haunted me throughout both the industrial gaze and my self-perpetration.  

This screendance work unfolds in end of a summertime on a high-coast mountain in northern Sweden, where I engage in a playing and meditative dance with the twig, the trunk, and the tree-as counter parts of my own body: the twig-the limbs, the trunk-the torso, and the tree-my entire being. I explored mutuality and responsiveness in an intimate dialogue between my own body and the environment around me.  

This work reflects on the tension between the physical limitations of a dancer's body and the ageless vibrancy of the spirit. The critical question here would be: even though the dancing body may not have time to grow old, can the soul remain forever young, curious, and playful?