Birdy: Hung Dance (Taiwan)

Birdy is Hung Dance’s exhilarating call to the wild, where creatures of a feather move together and fracture apart. Featuring the Ling Zi headpiece, pheasant tail feathers from traditional Chinese opera symbolizing a warrior’s power, the work conjures a magpie-inspired vision, flashing moments of freedom against the cage of history. Drawing from martial arts, Peking opera, and cultural symbolism, the choreography transforms Taiwan’s political and historical complexity into a vivid contemporary dance language. Shifting from tenderness to ferocity, long feathers extend the body, at times weapon, at times whisper, while dancers flock, conform, and resist in a visceral meditation on identity, control, and the human desire for freedom.