# Cocoon Canonical: https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon Cocoon, 2020. Dance theatre and collective production. He Fa’s role: Production and organisational collaboration, signed writing and participation in backstage interviews. 2020 / Dance theatre and collective production Sixteen days and nights bring unfamiliar bodies, disagreements and shared work into the theatre. Image accompanying the 2020 Cocoon backstage interviews. He Fa’s role Production and organisational collaboration, signed writing and participation in backstage interviews Director Huang Yiyin Production period Rehearsals began 16 October 2020; performance on 31 October ## Work record Cocoon, 2020. Dance theatre and collective production. He Fa’s role: Production and organisational collaboration, signed writing and participation in backstage interviews. Work / series Cocoon Date 2020 Medium Dance theatre and collective production He Fa’s role Production and organisational collaboration, signed writing and participation in backstage interviews Catalogue section Collaborative practice Cite this record: Cocoon · 2020 · Production and organisational collaboration, signed writing and participation in backstage interviews · [https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon) [2020-10-29 · Sixteen Days and Nights at P4: Cocoon (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-10-29-在p4剧场的16个日与夜的期盼-茧房-公演-c04ce4e555/) [2020-11-09 · Behind Cocoon: Recording the Existence of the Self (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-09-茧房-幕后谈-与p4剧场一起记录-我-的存在-66b795ecdb/) [2020-11-08 · Cocoon: the fifth P4 production concludes (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-08-p4剧场第五部公演戏剧-茧房-完满结束-23ac35947f/) [Original WeChat article (Chinese)](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jD1dCFiNp5g45oTte0aLeQ) WORK WORLD / OPEN FROM HERE Whose bodies and time make the event possible? ## How the work took shape Cocoon is a dance-theatre work concerned with prejudice. Writing on 29 October 2020, He Fa records that director Huang Yiyin agreed the schedule with him and Zhang Shaohua in September. Recruitment began in early October, continuous rehearsals on the sixteenth, and the presentation followed at the end of the month. A production of nearly twenty people brought performers, dancers, lighting, documentation, publicity and audiences into a shared period of preparation. November’s backstage interviews continued the account through individual participants’ experiences. Huang explains in the interviews that an initial concern with LGBTQ experiences developed into a broader inquiry into prejudice across genders and individuals. He Fa’s writing also records fatigue, lateness, physical strain, judgement and mutual support during production. This page preserves the work as both a performance and an event of working together: how bodies are seen, and how collaboration alters participants’ understanding of themselves. ## He Fa’s writing at the time · 2020 “Theatre cannot happen only on the stage.” He Fa includes conversation, photography, argument and a passing glance among the conditions through which theatre happens. In the backstage interview, he stresses that differing roles do not prevent participants from expressing their views. ## Works & details Image accompanying the 2020 Cocoon backstage interviews. Visual from He Fa’s 2020 performance announcement. ## Moving image & related documents [2020-10-29 · Sixteen Days and Nights at P4: Cocoon (Chinese) ↗](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-10-29-在p4剧场的16个日与夜的期盼-茧房-公演-c04ce4e555/) [2020-11-09 · Behind Cocoon: Recording the Existence of the Self (Chinese) ↗](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-09-茧房-幕后谈-与p4剧场一起记录-我-的存在-66b795ecdb/) [2020-11-08 · Cocoon: the fifth P4 production concludes (Chinese) ↗](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-08-p4剧场第五部公演戏剧-茧房-完满结束-23ac35947f/) [Original WeChat article (Chinese) ↗](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jD1dCFiNp5g45oTte0aLeQ) ## Archive note Compiled from the listed P4 documents, with later recollections dated separately. Editorial description and source excerpts are distinguished. English translations were prepared for this archive. ## Continue exploring ### P4 Theater Spaces, participants, events and documentation change one another through sustained work. ### Hallucination A theatre production connecting Shixiang with the emergence of the 3P group. ### How to Eat a Banana? A familiar act becomes a question to experience together. CLOSE READING / 2026 CURATORIAL INTERPRETATION ## Cocoon Whose bodies and time make the event possible? ### Begin with what happens in the work Rehearsal began on 16 October 2020, involving nearly twenty people; He Fa’s contemporary text describes the shared work. Backstage interviews retain differing accounts of prejudice, bodies and collaboration from the director and participants. This dance-theatre work cannot be understood only through attractive performance images. The contemporary text records repeated falls on a slippery stage, lateness, fatigue, injury, hunger and mutual judgments. These are not irrelevant matters outside creation. Whether a body can continue, and how members allocate time from their lives, directly determine what the evening can contain. Collective intensity has a specific process of production; final excitement cannot by itself establish a liberation shared by everyone. He Fa stresses both equal respect and the necessity of continuing. Their coexistence has more intellectual weight than a frictionless account of co-creation: the ability to voice an opinion does not mean equal exposure to pressure. Performance, rehearsal schedule and backstage accounts should be read against one another. His importance here lies partly in organization and documentation. Assigning the entire production to him would conceal the collaborative structure through which it became possible. ### The limits of this reading Participant accounts remain individual accounts; the process is not presented as a verified therapeutic or collective psychological effect. Based on He Fa’s signed text of 29 October 2020 and the November performance report and backstage interviews. [Work archive and source documents](#work-record) [2020-10-29 · Sixteen Days and Nights at P4: Cocoon (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-10-29-在p4剧场的16个日与夜的期盼-茧房-公演-c04ce4e555/) [2020-11-09 · Behind Cocoon: Recording the Existence of the Self (Chinese)](https://p4theater.cn/articles/2020/2020-11-09-茧房-幕后谈-与p4剧场一起记录-我-的存在-66b795ecdb/) TAKE A PATH ACROSS ## Other paths from this work. Body and presence When the body’s background returns [Cocoon](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon) ↔ [Illusion](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/huan) Illusion removes a clearly defined ground and support against white; Cocoon’s records retain rehearsal, falls and fatigue. Bodies become visible in both, while their conditions of production appear in contrasting ways. 2020 / Dance theatre and collective production 2011 / Photography, light box Read the source materials Work image [Images and presentation ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/huan#chapter-1) The body in the first portfolio image is set against white, with no support visible; the photographs are not labelled as successive stages of motion. Period document [How the work took shape ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon#chapter-1) He Fa’s text of 29 October 2020 and the November conversations preserve production records of recruitment, continuous rehearsals and bodily strain. [Continue from this work ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/crossings#work=huan) Body and presence ### When the body’s background returns [Cocoon](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon) ↔ [Illusion](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/huan) Illusion removes a clearly defined ground and support against white; Cocoon’s records retain rehearsal, falls and fatigue. Bodies become visible in both, while their conditions of production appear in contrasting ways. 2020 / Dance theatre and collective production 2011 / Photography, light box Work image [Images and presentation ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/huan#chapter-1) The body in the first portfolio image is set against white, with no support visible; the photographs are not labelled as successive stages of motion. The body in the first portfolio image is set against white, with no support visible; the photographs are not labelled as successive stages of motion. Period document [How the work took shape ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/cocoon#chapter-1) He Fa’s text of 29 October 2020 and the November conversations preserve production records of recruitment, continuous rehearsals and bodily strain. He Fa’s text of 29 October 2020 and the November conversations preserve production records of recruitment, continuous rehearsals and bodily strain. 2026-10-04 / ARCHIVAL ADDITION ## Source materials, process and versions Source photographs and a trailer record retain different roles. Public presentation, rehearsal and the individual image are not collapsed into one finished version. _DSC2466.JPG · Web access copy from the preserved source [_DSC2466.JPG ↗](https://b.p4theater.cn/sources/cv-jian-fang-09ef987ec65e) _DSC2111.JPG · Web access copy from the preserved source [_DSC2111.JPG ↗](https://b.p4theater.cn/sources/cv-jian-fang-abde16bc1a73) [茧房数字版预告_x264(20201109215654).mp4 ↗](https://b.p4theater.cn/sources/cv-jian-fang-5a51985562d9) [Follow the other material strands ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/reading/materials-and-process#jian-fang) FROM HERE, ELSEWHERE ## Passages between works [When another person enters](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/paths/another-person) Director, performers, documentarians and organizers work to the same date; equality of voice does not automatically equalize their burdens. Director, performers, documentarians and organizers work to the same date; equality of voice does not automatically equalize their burdens. ### Related records in the archive [P4 Theater ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/p4-theatre) 2015–present [Hallucination ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/hallucination) 2020 [How to Eat a Banana? ↗](https://hefa.p4theater.cn/en/work/eat-a-banana) 2021