Prelude to Mountain Ghost is a 30-minute-solo dance performance created and performed by myself, Po-Nien Wang, premiered at The Feuerle Collection on 23. October 2024, followed by 5 performances. The piece has been invited by Want To Dance (艋舺藝術節) in 2024 and 2025.

Emerged from my ongoing exploration of belonging, queerness, fluidity, and identity. Prelude to Mountain Ghost is inspired by the ancient Chinese poem, The Mountain Spirit, part of Nine Songs by Qu Yuan (343–278 B.C.) The poem tells a love story between a human and a mystical being, Mountain Spirit, a shape-shifting androgynous creature. This encounter, full of longing and transcendence, reveals a deep connection between non-binary identity and spirituality. It speaks to the liminal spaces where we dwell—those we are bound by, and those we yearn to transcend.

How long is ‘now’?

How did we come to be?

The only place I can never lose myself is in myself.

Alone yet moving,

In the rhythm of beginning, middle, and end.

Are we simply the stories we tell?

The piece unfolds as a ritualistic journey of self-exploration, where identities are porous and evolving over time. The body serves as both a vessel and a medium: holding traces of cultural influence and personal memory, and simultaneously transcends our living experience into narratives/stories. At the heart of Prelude to Mountain Ghost is the possibility of change, of not trying to please or convince, but simply to be. I use this Mountain Spirit to reflect on the constant transformation of all natural beings, and within each of us: the dance between the masculine and the feminine, the divine and the earthly, the physical and the spiritual.