Taiwanese choreographer and dancer Lin Hsiang-hsiu (
Lin invited an old friend, Robert Regala, former principal dancer with the Jose Limon Dance Company in New York to come to Taiwan for the local premiere of the 1950 Limon classic The Exile and present a joint program with her.
Lin and Regala met as graduate students at San Jose State University in California just over a decade ago, studying with Gary Masters and Fred Mathews, both former members of the Limon company.
As students, Lin and Regala performed Exile in 1995, one of the many times they were partnered.
Lin said in an interview on Tuesday that she had been looking for a chance to work with Regala again since they graduated.
"The idea was brought up a long time ago, seven or eight years ago. But then when Robert left the [Limon] company last November, the time seemed right," she said.
After getting permission to stage Exile, Lin returned to San Jose for the month of January so that she and Regala could relearn and rehearse the piece under the watchful eyes of their former professors.
"We still feel connected after all this time," Lin said, laughing.
The first piece on the program, Moonlight also harks back to Lin's student days. She first performed it in 1994.
"It's a solo that I made before I got married," she said. "I'm still married, but emotionally I feel so different from 10 years ago."
"I feel the transition comes through the dance now, so I'm glad that I can do it again, for Taiwan," she said.
Regala's solo, Nightmare, is also a work about transition. It's the first piece he's done since leaving Limon and he said it reflects the conflicts he has felt since then, the kind of stress that wakes you up at night.
After this weekend's performances, Lin and company will take their show on the road to to Kaohsiung and then Taoyuan, a first for her.
"It's because of Robert. Kaohsiung doesn't have the chance to seek good male dancers," Lin said. "I was also able to arrange for him to teach workshops at two high schools in Kaohsiung ... It will be great."
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