2025 Camping Asia: A cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural and cross-generational hub to shape the future art landscape
This 12-day avant-garde artist development programme encompasses creativity, education, and creation. It will once again gather nearly twenty art institutions and more than 150 students from Europe, Asia, and Oceania to engage in cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural, and cross-generational dialogues in Taipei. The programme aims to enhance global cultural exchange and promote the development of performing arts in Asia.
Pushing body limits: The path to liberal co-learning for Asia’s top dancers
Camping Asia draws inspiration from the “Camping” project in Paris, France, which TPAC has been a part of since 2018. In 2019, TPAC attempted to introduce the Camping spirit into Asia, and has since been hosting a biennial Asian edition of the Camping project in Taipei, using dances to connect art schools, art institutions, and artists. Camping Asia not only reaffirms Taipei as an international hub for contemporary dances but also brings in new visions and energy for professional dancers in Asia.
Victoria Wang, Chairman and Artistic Director of TPAC, points out that TPAC has opted for the intensive, cross-disciplinary training approach of the “Camping” project mainly because of its “open for all” philosophy and its goal of connecting educators, professionals, and the general public outside conventional doctrine. She emphasised that this approach is key to awakening the hidden talents in young dancers and opening their minds to new possibilities.
The programme of 2025 Camping Asia is once again packed with variety; an intensive schedule of courses and performances awaits each day, making it the ultimate co-learning environment. Morning Classes, Expert Workshops, Schools Marathon, Giant Classes, In-depth Forum, and Micro movie screening are just some examples of how participants can physically explore and maximise their experience.
According to Curator River Lin, five special performances have been selected for this year’s event to try to re-imagine dance performance so that the art is no longer limited by existing definition, but expanded to associate with technologies, sounds, philosophy, images, and political realities. Through these performances, Lin hopes that young choreographers may see dance as a way to think, feel, and from which continue to draw inspiration about body movement and what the world should be at a time of uncertainty.
Room with A View (Photo credit: Cyril Moreau)
An epic story of youth, destruction, and rebirth told through body movements
Room with A View, presented by (LA) HORDE, co-directors of the Ballet National de Marseille, and acclaimed electronic music producer Rone, transforms the Grand Theater into a post-apocalyptic marble quarry where dancers search for meaning in a fractured world.
Loïe Fuller Research (Photo credit: Martin Argyroglo, Eric Hong, Danna Schmidt)
Re-imagination of the serpentine dance in tribute to the innovation a hundred years ago
In Loïe Fuller: Research, Polish choreographer Ola Maciejewska revisits the iconic serpentine dance with flowing silk, shifting light, and contemporary bodies, exploring the tension between material, perception, and the female form.
Storytelling through improvisational photography
UK artist Benji Reid’s Find Your Eyes turns photography into a live act of improvisation, inviting audiences to witness how staging, emotion, and presence turn a camera click into performance art.
Mouvement sur mouvement (Photo credit: Marc Domage)
A philosophical debate of the body and words on stage
French choreographer Noé Soulier’s Mouvement sur Mouvement offers a solo work that pairs movement with spoken reflections on the nature of motion, blending dance with philosophical inquiry.
UNITED (Photo credit: GRPhoto)
Mechanical devices powered by body movements – a challenge to the art of dancing
Australia’s leading dance company Chunky Move presents U>N>I>T>E>D—a cyberpunk-inspired, high-energy performance featuring dancers in mechanical costumes made from dirt bike parts, moving in sync with Javanese electro beats and re-imaging “the awakening of spirituality in a mechanical jungle.”
About Camping Asia
Since 2019, Camping Asia has successfully attracted participation of art institutions and hundreds of students from more than 12 countries; the 2023 event exceeded a visitor count of 7,000. This year, Camping Asia welcomes top institutions from around the world including Department of Dance from Japan Women’s College of Physical Education, LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore, and Anton Bruckner Private University in Austria; meanwhile, an all-time high number of nine institutions from Taiwan will also be participating in the event. Camping Asia is more than an art school for the next generation, but an event that helps preserve Taiwan’s creative vitality and cultural freedom as well as global standing in the arts, making it an artistic journey that everyone should take.