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© Vjosana Shkurti — avec/with : Nien Tzu Weng
“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.
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 bridges inner and outer worlds, physical and virtual spaces. The result is an immersive performance where dance, gestures, memory-igniting scenery, luminous robots, and personas intertwine in a layered dreamscape.
The April 11th performance will be followed by a talkback moderated by Emile Pineault.
Co-presented with Danse-Cité
ABOUT+
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.
Credits+
Nien Tzu Weng: Artistic direction, Scenographer, Choreographer
Marie-Audrey Jacques: Material Consultant, Scenographer, Costume Designer
Vjosana Shkurti: Filmmaker
Isaac Chanoki Endo: Rope fabrication/specialist, Assistant scenographer, 3D scan technician, Rigging
Dae Courtney: Sound Designer
Baco Lepage-Acosta: Video Mapping
Justin de Luna: Movement Coach
Myriam Bleau: Laser Girl
Timothy Thomasson, Milo Reinhardt. Ahmed Drebika : Mixed Reality / 3D Animation Artist
Paul Chambers: Light Consultant
Naoto Hieda: Virtual performance support, Digital caregiver
Winnie Ho: Outside Eye
Justin Houde: Technical director
Emile Pineault: Production support
Presented by MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels) and Danse-Cité
Co-produced by Nien Tzu Weng, Danse-Cité and MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels)