Moving to a different beat

The afternoon sunlight shone into a dance studio at the National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA). Instead of tutus and ballet shoes, the classical dancers in the classroom were wearing baggy pants, T-shirts, sneakers, and caps -- and they were about to start a lesson in hip hop.

The dance department of the NTUA, an academic institution that reveres classical dance tradition, is an incongruous location for hip hop. The occasion was a four-day hip-hop workshop for NTUA faculty and students last week given by Robert Hylton, an award-winning British hip-hop choreographer, who was in Taiwan at the invitation of the British Council.

Hylton's hip-hop style mixes modern formal dance with street dance and improvisation.

"More drama," he called out to the dancers, "Don't straighten up, you need to be heavy on your steps ... Like puppets, pretend your arms and shoulders are pulled up by strings."

This was all very different from what these students had studied before.

Hylton said he needs patience more than anything in order to change these young ballet dancers, who have been conditioned to keep certain postures.

"It is like stripping away what's made already and starting all over again," he said.

Hylton gave an example of moving one's chest, which is as important to hip-hop dance as a plie is to ballet.

In one of the sessions, Hylton asked the dancers to walk around the room, stop and find someone and start staring at each other -- a theatrical trick to help actors perform with intensity.

Hylton noted, however, that the eight-hour sessions were more of a preparation than a performance.

"I hope the movements will go inside and they can begin dancing on their own," he said. "What I give them is a pathway, rather than just sequences of moves."

Though some of the dancers were not completely ignorant of hip hop, the workshop was nevertheless a fresh experience.

To Joanna Lo (羅華郁), a junior in the dance department who has been a ballet dancer for 12 years, hip hop dancing requires a good memory, strength and, most importantly, a good sense of coordination of body parts.

"Only those with a perfect sense of body coordination can create something that looks uncoordinated," Lo said.

The learning experience was quite challenging, she said, adding that she used muscles that she would not normally use in ballet if she wanted to create some of the effects Hylton did.

Many of the students said the alternative dancing style was inspiring.

"Your brain becomes dysfunctional when you dance in a certain way for a long time," said junior Mindy Kao (高敏芝). "He [Hylton] encouraged us to dance and move in new ways and be creative with the way your body can work."

"I like the rhythm and the moves of hip-hop; ballet dancers are under so many restrictions, you have to be tall and thin and beautiful; dancing hip hop makes you happy and you feel you can have your own style," Kao said.