B.LOSSOM
Starting from the body:
Time in the body
Our Team's classic dance piece "Floating Flowers" is inspired by the blessing ritual of releasing water lanterns in Taiwanese folk beliefs. It was written by Tsai Po-cheng after his father's passing. The dancers transform into water lanterns floating on the water, asking the same question: In the impermanence of life, how do we coexist with joy and sorrow?
This work has traveled all over the world, to France, Spain, Scotland, Israel, and Germany. It took the dance company to many places, and ultimately brought them back to a starting point they never imagined—a group of people who had never had the chance to dance before.
Start from here
In 2020, under a co-commission by the National Theater & Concert Hall (Taiwan) and Sadler's Wells Theatre (London), a project was conceived to bring senior dancers from both Taiwan and London together to perform Floating Flowers on the London stage. Then the pandemic struck, and the plan was halted.
Yet, the company did not walk away. Instead, they adapted, moving what was meant for the theater online—crafting tailor-made instructional videos and choreography workshops specifically for seniors. It was during this process that Tsai Po-Cheng truly met these "older brothers and sisters" for the first time, many of whom had been denied the chance to dance their entire lives due to past societal pressures.
As they began to move their bodies and share their voices, Tsai listened, discovering something entirely unexpected.
"In these senior women, what you see is pure emotion, profound resonance, and lived stories. You don’t just see movement—you see the accumulation of time itself."
In 2021, under the banner of "B.LOSSOM," the company launched a two-month documentary dance workshop. Ten senior dancers took part, beginning by sharing the defining moments of their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties. They then learned to channel emotions through music, discover images connected to themselves through world-renowned paintings, and tell their own stories using everyday objects—ultimately cultivating works that were uniquely their own.
The entire journey was documented on film, with writers capturing every class and conversation along the way. This was not for publicity,
Big hand holding little hand, forever blooming.
In the autumn of 2022, the project stepped out of the rehearsal room and into schools and communities.
Morag Deyes MBE, former Artistic Director of Dance Base (Scotland’s National Centre for Dance), alongside Yeh Jih-Wen, Director of Step Out Arts, traveled to Taiwan. The very day their quarantine ended, they headed straight into the rehearsal studio. Morag posed a question to the Taiwanese senior dancers: "What is the very first dance you remember learning?"
One recalled an elementary school morning fitness routine; another shared how a textbook story, The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains, inspired them to choreograph their own dance; yet another reminisced about being mesmerized by the captivating glances and hand gestures of Beijing Opera on television as a child, memories that had never faded. As Morag listened, she gently wove these time-repressed memories into the choreographic structure of Floating Flowers. Ultimately, she integrated four distinct archetypes into the finale of the piece: the Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy), the Warrior, the Queen, and the Mother.
Over the following month, they traveled across Taiwan from north to south—visiting Taitung, Taipei, Tainan, Chiayi, Hsinchu, and Kaohsiung. They brought the performance into schools, universities, communities, and onto the outdoor plaza of Weiwuying (National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts). Audiences of all ages sat beneath the stage, watching these bodies, shaped by decades of life, speak through Floating Flowers.
After one performance, a young audience member remarked, "Right now, the one thing I want to do most is go home and dance with my mother."
In 2023, the Taiwanese dancers traveled to Scotland with this very project.
There, they worked alongside twelve dancers from PRIME, Scotland's semi-professional elder dance company, to rehearse a piece centered around the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. The theme was still rooted in Floating Flowers, born from Tsai Po-Cheng’s original query in memory of his late father. Yet, in Scotland, expressed through a different set of bodies that had weathered different life journeys, the same story was told, but it carried a different kind of weight.
During rehearsals, the Taiwanese dancers worried that a certain sequence of movements was too complex and considered simplifying it. Before they could even speak, Christine, an 80-year-old dancer, preempted them: "Don't change it. We can definitely learn it."
They performed in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dundee, and even visited a dance class for individuals living with Parkinson's disease. At the Aberdeen performance, a young audience member asked the senior dancers: "How do you build the confidence to believe you can do this?" One by one, the "sisters" replied—You should never let your age limit you. Tell yourself every day that you are beautiful. Everything in life is interconnected.
The B.LOSSOM project has come a long way, from the initial cancellation to the tears in the rehearsal room, to the rainy day in Scotland. Every hand that has been held has transcended the distance of age, language, and nationality.
Artistic Director Tsai Po-cheng said
"The biggest takeaway from doing this is rediscovering the true purpose of art. When people from different generations stand in the same space, setting aside labels and speaking through their bodies—that's when dance truly expresses its deepest message."