Dance students gather their focus

This weekend Taipei National Arts University's Focus Dance Company (焦點舞團) will hold the first three performances of its first national tour in its eight-year history.

This year's set of performances, titled Creative Image (亮相), represents a new beginning for the company composed of the college's dance department students. They have a new name and a new outlook. Last September, when the company flew to South Korea to participate in international competition, the school's president, Qiu Kun-liang (邱坤良), was so impressed by the professional caliber of their performance that he urged them to change their name from Freshmen Dance Company (新鮮人舞團) to something more fitting.

"We were the youngest group there. The president felt that everyone there was focusing on us," said senior company member Wu Jia-sui (吳佳穗). The group plans to tour Taiwan every year from now on. This year they will hold performances in Hsinchu, Taichung, and Kaohsiung, among other places.

Professional is a good word to describe Focus, whose repertoire includes mostly dances composed by students, some of whom have been with the company for seven years. One such dance is Tian jing sha (天淨沙) composed by Zhang Ya-ting (張雅婷). Fusing tai chi and modern dance with the heavily symbolic color red, this dance makes it obvious why Qiu, upon seeing it, suggested the name ``Focus.''

The only two pieces in the show not choreographed by students were taught to them by members of world-famous dance troupes.

Water Moon (水月), by Taiwan's most successful choreographer Lin Huai-min (林懷民), also draws heavily on tai chi and recreates the sense of transience conveyed in the Buddhist proverb its title brings to mind: "Flowers in a mirror and moon on the water are both illusive."

The other highlight piece is Set and Reset/Reset, choreographed by a former member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Abigail Yager. The piece is inspired by Set and Reset, the landmark Trisha Brown piece recently recognized by the France's Ministry of National Education as one of the three great masterpieces of 20th-century modern dance.

According to Yager, who came to Taiwan two years ago to be with her husband, the Taiwanese choreographer Yang Ming-long (楊銘隆), "The complexity of the choreography belies the simplicity of the principles upon which it was based."

Performance notes:

What: Focus Dance Company, Creative Images

When: Tonight at 7:30pm, Saturday at 2:30pm and 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm. Island tour begins on Mar. 16 in Hsinchu.

Where: Taipei National Arts University dance hall (台北藝術大學舞蹈廳)

Getting there: Take the Danshui MRT line to Guandu (關渡) Station, then catch a cab or the TNAU shuttle that comes by the bus stop outside the station.

Tickets: NT$300 at the door or through Artsticket outlets: (02) 3393 9888