Daughters, often the apple of their parents' eyes, can often be a means to line the family coffers when times are bad and this is the focus of the Assembly Dance Theatre's (
Taking inspiration from the popular Taiwanese song For NT$100,000 (
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The Assembly Dance Theatre, founded in October 1993 by Professor Yang Kuei-chuan (
Following the three principles of "going modern, branching out from
traditional dancing and caring for life," the group has performed 132
productions and impressed choreography pundits in the US with its previous productions, namely Gift and Lily.
Yang's company successfully
marries post-modern dance methodology with minimalist sensibilities to
create a new, athletic aesthetic.
As contemporary dancers and critics in the West look to the East and its cultural influences such as tai-chi for inspiration, the Assembly Dance
Theatre has drawn on its roots in Taiwan to form productions that are
simultaneously Eastern and Western.
The group commissions works from foreign artists, trains dancers and through public education promotes dance in Taiwan.
In US 3030 Dollars a Taiwanese fortune teller guides the performers, who dance to Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, through their dreams.
"For NT$100,000 refers to the
difficulty of life in times gone by when many people sold their daughters into marriage. In fact, this still goes on. Therefore, the song becomes emblematic of people who are faced with a cruel life when they are poverty stricken and are in distress," Yang said.
Tickets are NT$350 and are available through www.artsticket.com.tw.
Performances are tomorrow, 7:30pm at Taoyuan County Government Cultural Affairs Arts Hall, (
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