The Coronet Theatre is a reimagined architectural and design jewel, originally built as a grand Victorian Playhouse, now a pioneering home for international, cross-disciplinary arts. Curated by Artistic Director Anda Winters, over the past decade it has become a significant cultural landmark.
Known for world and UK premieres, its mission is to bring artists and art forms from around the world, championing work that would not otherwise be seen. The programme enables access for diverse audiences to world-class theatre, dance, music, film and visual arts through co-productions, commissions, and invited works.
Centrally situated in London’s Notting Hill, The Coronet has two main spaces: The Auditorium and The Print Room Studio. With the additional performances and exhibitions in the bar, the atmospheric upper rooms, and basements, the whole building is a living global showcase.
Photo by Liu Ren-haur
Photo by Franco Wang
HUNG DANCE
PUSH AND PULL
12 - 14 Mar
Capturing the universal rhythm of giving and receiving, resisting and yielding, this quietly poetic work explores resilience and tenderness in a spellbinding encounter between two exceptional dancers and movement artists.
Both intimate and powerful, the work unfolds with remarkable sensitivity and control, inspired by the principles of Tai Chi and the physics of force and balance.The dancers inhabit the delicate space between attraction and independence, intimacy and autonomy, and through fluid, exacting movement, they shape a profound meditation on connection.
Hung Dance was last at the Coronet with Birdy as part of the Taiwan Festival in 2024. “Sublime choreography. ” – Youness Bousenna, La Provence
“Outstanding show. A cathartic show and a wonderful performance.” –Edinburgh Fringe Review
Push and Pull won four major awards at the Rotterdam International Duet Choreography Competition (RIDCC) in 2025. It also received two awards at the International Choreography Competition in Hannover, the oldest competition of its kind in Europe.
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
Artistic Director & Choreographer
Lighting & Costume Concept
Performers
Rehearsal Director
Rehearsal Assistant
Technical Director & Lighting Designer
Tour Lighting Designer
Music Designer
Technical Coordinator & Stage Manager
Lighting Technicians
Tour Manager
Production Assistant
Still Photographer (Original Production)
Supported by
Lai Hung-chung
Lai Hung-chung
Lu Ying-chieh & Lee Kuan-ling
Cheng I-han
Wu Shin-jie
Tsai Chao-yu
Ciou Yu-wun
Kuo Yu
Wu Cheng-wen
Ting Yung-tang
Chen Wei-ping
Chang Po-hsiang
Franco Wang
The Ministry of Culture of Taiwan (Republic of China)
POST-SHOW TALK
Join us on Fri 13 Mar for a post-show Q&A with choreographer Lai Hung-chung and the dancers of Push and Pull. This event is free for ticket holders.
Photo by Liu Ren-haur
Photo by Liu Ren-haur
Lai graduated from the Dance Division of Tsoying High School and TNUA ' s Department of Dance
In 2016, he participated in the MOC's Taiwan Creative Dance Competition, clinching a gold medal, 2 outstanding awards, and one excellent award with 4 dance creations to become the first ever choreographer to receive 4 awards at the same time during the competition's 17-year history. From 2017 to 2018, his submissions to international choreography competitions have won numerous awards out of over 100 submitted dance pieces.
After founding Hung Dance, he placed emphasis on cultivating the dancers' abilities and developing inspirations for dance pieces. He devised innovative ways to train the company based on the creative concept and needs, as well as searched for a balance between contemporary thinking and dance. In addition, he has devoted himself to a wide range of international collaborations and new talent development programs in the hope of expanding the diverse dance scene in Taiwan.
Photo by Liu Ren-haur
PUSH AND PULL: AN INTRODUCTION
BY HUNG DANCE
Push and Pull is inspired from a simple and ambiguous daily scenario: a door marked “PUSH” or “PULL.” Though clearly labeled, people often hesitate, misjudge, or obey the other side.This moment of uncertainty reflects the negotiation and tension rooted in human relationships, and mirrors Taiwan’s position in navigating between assertion and diplomacy: within family, society, and its international position.
This duet begins with mundane details, expanding into emotional structures and geopolitical metaphors. Choreographer Lai Hung-chung begins from a memory of his mother, a silent yet resilient woman who carried the family’s emotional and practical weight. As Taiwanese society evolves, he began to ask: are the energy structures within our relationships also quietly shifting and reorganizing?
by Liu Ren-haur
Photo
Push and Pull is a quiet fable about Taiwan’s psychological landscape. Situated on a tectonic fault line, the island is in a constant search for balance.Taiwanese people are known for their kindness and resilience, yet we often choose not to “misstep” amidst instability: observing, holding, waiting.This psychological mechanism shapes how we manage intimacy, tension, and identity, subtly influencing how we move, choose, and relate.
Push and Pull – sometimes, yielding is a form of moving forward.
Photo by Franco Wang
CHOREOGRAPHIC IMAGERY & SYMBOLIC STRUCTURES
A poetic breakdown of four key elements: movement texture, emotional space, spatial language, and gender roles.
The rhythm of a seismic island
Taiwan’s location on tectonic boundaries forms the work’s dance language of balance. Dancers push and pull, misaligning and realigning bodies and objects, mirroring how people seek footing amid social and emotional tremors. Movements shift between instinct and composure, much like our responses to an earthquake. As the piece evolves, opposition gives way to a gliding, skating-like quality, becoming a signature of the choreography.
Breath and Water as Nonverbal Language
Breath and water form the core of the soundscape. Chairs open with inhalation, close with exhalation. Water flows, drips, and evaporates – echoing emotional release and social tension.The water-filled lamp onstage acts as an emotional seismograph,
Photo by Franco Wang
by Franco Wang
Rebuilding the Set, Rewriting the Roles
The set consists solely of two tables and two chairs. Dancers push, pull, dismantle, and rebuild them, symbolizing ongoing negotiation in relationships. Each shift asks: Who lets go? Who leads? Who follows? In the final section, the female dancer initiates change, guiding the male dancer and reshaping space. Her movement is not control, but agency. At this point, the water lamp shakes most violently – as if space, emotion, and memory all resonate together.
Yielding as Forward Motion
The piece ends not in conflict, but in yielding.This is not defeat, but a conscious choice to hold balance, step back, and observe. For Lai Hung-chung, this reflects Taiwan’s cultural instinct: kind, resilient, and cautious in the face of uncertainty – choosing peace through restraint.These quiet moments – letting go, pausing, allowing –reveal the deeper psychological landscape of Taiwan.
Photo
Photo by Franco Wang
Photo by Franco Wang
30 Apr - 02 May
Hung Dance is a Taiwanese contemporary dance company founded on May 5, 2017. Choreographer Lai Hung Chung serves as the artistic director, and the troupe's name comes from the Chinese character 翃 , meaning to fly.The company has adopted four core elements in its development: Annual productions, the International Collaboration Project (ICP) , International Tours, and the Stray Birds Dance Platform.
Currently, at the core of our annual productions are the works of Artistic Director, Lai Hung-Chung. His dances are inspired by daily life matters, taking internal emotions and physical states and putting them into dance movement. He is perceptive to the subtle relationship between people and nature, and extends elements of
Tai Chi to integrate with contemporary thinking and cultivate a new dance vocabulary. In 2018, the short piece, Birdy, was developed into the dance company ' s first feature-length work, Boundless, which was invited to premiere in Madrid, Spain at the "Made in Taiwan-Taiwan en el C rculo", co-hosted by the Taiwan Embassy in Spain and the C rculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid. After premiering, the work then returned to Taiwan, to tour in Kaohsiung,Taipei and New Taipei City, and also toured in the Ivory Coast.The company ' s second feature-length work was 2020's See You, which premiered at Taipei's Wellspring Theater and was nominated for the 19th Taishin Arts Award.
The international tours began at the founding of Hung Dance. Lai Hung-Chung's short pieces, Watcher and Birdy, were submitted to international choreography competitions and art festivals, winning 13 international awards. Following this success, the
The development of the ICP began as, from its establishment, the company has had the opportunity to meet many like-minded and unique dancers while touring in different countries.The ICP invites international choreographers to Taiwan to tailor-make new works for Hung Dance, allowing the dancers the opportunity to work with international choreographers and learn dance vocabulary from different cultural backgrounds.The first international collaboration project was Out of Elegant, a work coproduced with Spanish choreographer Mario Bermudez Gil and performed at the Experimental Theater of the National Theatre in 2020.This collaboration also opened up a different network for international tour opportunities.
The Stray Birds Dance Platform (Stray Birds) project was proposed in 2018, in hopes of creating a bridge and providing opportunities for young choreographers to publish works on the platform. Furthermore, Lai Hung-Chung hoped to utilize the international network of contacts accumulated in recent years to invite international choreography competitions and art festivals to present awards, select dance works by youth talents to compete, and create opportunities to connect with the world. With a platform that connects the like-minded, we can establish connections between young choreographers and the international market. It is hoped that in the future, Stray Birds will become a large-scale international dance platform. Starting in 2022, we will be pleased to open applications to international works, deepening our international connections and fostering a positive, competitive environment.
BY CARYL CHURCHILL
Praise for the original production of Escaped Alone: 06 - 09 May
“Caryl Churchill’s magnificent play unleashes an intricate, elliptical, acutely female view of the apocalypse. Revolutionary.”
