Nien Tzu Weng's journey is unique and fascinating. Her practice has accumulated a wealth of experiences over the years, ranging from traditional Chinese dance to experimental circus, technological game creation, and many other explorations, leading to her current experimental approaches to performance and lighting design. Nien Tzu is a charismatic performer and a creative force bursting with imagination.
In 《{光 (陰 | 影)}之∞》(Guāng Yīn): The Lightest Dark is Darker Than the Darkest Light, Weng deconstructs the cultural underpinnings of her movement practices, experimenting with a “body identity” connected to ancient Taoist concepts. Through the body’s yin and yang aspects, she navigates a fluid, paradoxical state between inner and outer worlds, bridging physical and virtual spaces. The result is an immersive performance where dance, gestures, memory-igniting scenery, luminous robots and personas all meet—intertwined in a layered dreamscape.
Nien Tzu Weng asserts herself in the notion of pleasure and performative play, and her work is a motif for life and bodily reflection.
“光” [guāng] means “light” and “陰” [yīn] means “negative” or “shade.” Together, they form “光陰” [guāngyīn], “time.”
After 15 years in Canada, Nien Tzu Weng goes back in time. The journey is crucial; she must experience what she missed in the past to understand why she had to leave in the first place. After all, when one escapes, a new narrative takes form.
Danse-Cité collaborates with the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) to support an artist who pushes the boundaries of multiple artistic disciplines. Our shared resources will help bring this project to life.
Credits
Nien Tzu Weng: Artistic direction, scenographer, choreographer
Marie-Audrey Jacques: Consultant of material and costume
Vjosana Shkurti: Filmmaker
Isaac Chanoki Endo: Rope Artist and Assistant Scenographer
Naoto Hieda: Online Digital Artist
Dae Courtney: Sound Design
Baco Lepage-Acosta: Video Mapping
Timothy Thomasson, Milo Reinhardt, Ahmed Drebika : AXR Artist
Winnie Ho, Peng Hsu: Outside Eye
Paul Chambers: Light Design Consultant
Presented by Danse-Cité et MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
Co-produced by Nien Tzu Weng, Danse-Cité and MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
Co-curated by Ellen Furey and Sophie Corriveau
Partners
With the financial support of: Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Festival Accès Asie
Creation residencies: Anti-Space, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
About the artist
Nien Tzu Weng is a Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary dance artist and lighting designer based in Montreal. She builds bridges between disciplines, pursuing an experimental approach to contemporary performance, and a laboratory-based approach to lighting design. As both choreographer and lighting designer, she focuses on presence and interactivity, curious about the relationship between movement and new media practices. She plays the balance between reality and fantasy working with light and multimedia material to tinker with perspective. Nien Tzu perceives performance as a process of transmitting dialogues between inner and outer space, where presence and image builds multiple, overlapping conceptions of time.
Nien Tzu completed her BFA in Contemporary Dance at Concordia University (2018). She received a danceWeb Scholarship in 2023 (AT), a Mécènes investi·es pour les arts prize and a CAM/La Chapelle residency in new artistic practices in 2019, an OFFTA Hybridity Award, an undergraduate research award and a contemporary dance prize in 2018 , and the James Saya Award in 2015.
Her projects have been presented internationally at Flipchart (The Hague, NL), Node Digital Festival (Frankfurt, DE), Biennale Némo (Paris, FR) and Ars Electronica (Linz, AUT), as well as in Canada at IN/ON/ OUT INTERARTS (Winnipeg, MB), SummerWorks (Toronto, ON), 1-ACT Fest (Vancouver, BC), and in Montréal at OFFTA, Elektra, Akousma, Tangente Danse, La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines and Montréal, intercultural arts.
Interview
To come.
Practical Informations
Dates :
9 avril 2025
10 avril 2025
11 avril 2025
12 avril 2025Venue:
MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)
3680 rue Jeanne Mance
Montréal, QC, H2X 2K5
https://m-a-i.qc.ca/