Residency week 10 / 2024
This week we have choreographer and performer Hwa Wei-An in residence with his project A Reason for Falling. This work is an exploration and reconsideration of verticality and balance, and of what it means to commit to a fall and give in to gravity. Drawing inspiration from the practice of freeriding and Wei-An’s recent experiences with snowboarding, this piece is also a way of searching for the possibilities that lie beyond a surrender to gravity and in embracing of the fear of falling.
Wei-An has spent his whole life falling down; it’s a by-product of perpetually thinking he can do more than he actually can, whether that meant trying to spin on his head or backflip before he was ready, or learning how to snowboard on his own. And though he may not be the best at those activities, he’s become quite good at falling. He has, in fact, built his contemporary practice around his love-hate relationship with gravity, and the connections this relationship has with the psychological state of flow.