Huang Yi: Ink

Huang Yi was last seen in Abu Dhabi in The Arts Center’s inaugural season, dancing with an industrial robot. This time he takes the ‘dance meets tech’ idea in new directions; in this collaboration with audiovisual pioneer Ryoichi Kurokawa, the lines from a hundred artworks by renowned calligrapher Tong Yang-Tze are dismantled and reconstructed to explore the various textures that can be found between body, sound, visual, and space.

Huang digs into his cultural roots to find a wild language of movement, turning dancers’ bodies into brushes that paint marks on stage. Kurokawa transforms the inkblots into luminous tracks, echoing and merging with the unique brushstrokes of Tong, constructing a continuous flow of paintings via holographic projection. On stage, dancers trace ephemeral gestures that echo the movement of a calligrapher’s brush, while Kurokawa’s responsive sound and visual environment amplifies each motion, dissolving the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds. The result is a hypnotic performance that unfolds like a living painting, at once precise, fluid, and emotionally charged.

Bill Bragin, Executive Artistic Director at The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, said: “Huang Yi’s duet with the robot KUKA dazzled audiences in our inaugural season a decade ago, so it feels especially meaningful to welcome him back as we enter our second decade. Ink shows how his work has continued to grow, using technology in striking and unexpected ways, while still feeling lyrical and deeply human. We are delighted to welcome him back to Abu Dhabi and to share this extraordinary Middle East premiere of a performance mixing with the ancient art of calligraphy, and contemporary multimedia art and robotics.”

Ink is an original production of Huang Yi Studio +, co-commissioned by the National Taichung Theater and National Theater, Taipei in Taiwan. It is presented in Abu Dhabi with the support of Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.