Free Touch is an artistic practice initiated by choreographer Chou Kuan-Jou in 2024, inviting strangers into one-on-one, consensual touch interactions in public spaces. In 2025, Kuan brings this practice into the theatre, transforming the idea of exploration of touch, public space, and bodily boundaries into the stage work Free Touch: Staging Presence.
The work invites audiences to take part in a collective social experiment with all visible and invisible presences within the theatre. Beyond the stroking, tickling, discomfort, or pleasure on the skin, touch becomes a driving force that moves across the boundaries between body and space, the public and private.
Through an experience shaped by touch, movement, and choice, the work encourages audiences to reflect on bodily autonomy, spatial politics, and the ways we navigate proximity, difference, and coexistence. In this shared environment, boundaries are not fixed limits, but sites of encounter
CHOU Kuan Jou X Latent Heat Collective
Chou Kuan-Jou is a choreographer and performer based in Taipei, Taiwan. Their practice employs the fluidity of sexuality as a strategy to reframe boundaries of sensory experience, space, and body politics. Through touch and bodily interaction, their work expands into a dance-based dialogic space, embodied through methods including bodily practices, workshop facilitation, and performance. Their research also extends into social advocacy, engagement in volunteering with Hand Angels, an organization advocating for the sexual rights of people with disabilities.
Kuan’s work TOMATO received five-star reviews and the Bobby Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was later invited to present at The Coronet Theatre in London and at Melbourne Fringe. TOMATO was described by The Guardian as “unique and full of potential.” In 2024, Kuan initiated the Free Touch practice, which has been carried out across four countries with nearly 60 participants. A concept-derived work, Free Touch: Staging Presence, received the Grand Prize at the 2025 Taipei Fringe Festival.
Concept & Performance｜CHOU Kuan Jou
Lighting Design｜You Jyun Wang
Sound Design｜ CHENG Tse Lun
Stage Manager｜SUN WEI-CHEN
Graphic Design ｜58kg
Production Advisor & Support｜WU Po-Shan
Marketing Coordination ｜Play in Thermae
Box Office & Front of House Manager ｜Hsiao-Fan Tai
Organizer
