Taiwan-born Allen Yu (余能盛) has been working in Europe for the past 20 years as a dancer, choreographer and ballet master. Currently the deputy ballet director and choreographer of the Opera House in Graz, Austria, he chose to spend his summer vacation remounting his 1998 ballet, Tchaikovsky — None But The Lonely Heart, for Taipei's Water Reflection Dance Ensemble.
Yu created Tchaikovsky for the Chamber Ballet here in Taipei, where he served as ballet director during his off-time from his dancing duties in Europe. The premier, also at the Metropolitan Hall, was very successful and the run sold out.
He said he had been inspired several years earlier, when he was dancing in two other pieces that used Peter Tchaikovsky's music, to do something himself.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WATER REFLECTION DANCE ENSEMBLE
“I thought I really, really liked the story, I wanted to do my own choreography,” Yu said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “His [Tchaikovsky's] story is so rich.”
“He had such an unhappy life, so many sad love affairs,” Yu said. “None But The Lonely Heart is the name of his favorite song.”
“I used the Symphony Pathetique [No. 6], the last one, as the central theme to tell his story,” Yu said.
Tchaikovsky's name is synonymous some of the most beautiful and romantic music ever written for ballets — Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and the Nutcracker. Music critics, however, agree that the Pathetique can be seen both as a reflection and the culmination of Tchaikovsky's tumultuous life. It also served as his epitath, since he died just nine days after its premier.
As a homosexual in tsarist Russia, Tchaikovsky had to live “in the closet,” always fearing disclosure of his secret. At age 37 he married a former student but the couple separated soon after, although they never divorced. He then began a 14-year long platonic relationship with a wealthy older widow, Nadazhda van Meck, who became is patron — on the condition that they never actually meet.
“His music is based on his loves — for his mother, for his girlfriend, his nephew ... so much pain in his loves, so many beautiful pieces,” Yu said.
He brought with him five dancers from Europe, including two Taiwanese, to boost the Water Reflection Dance Ensemble's strength.
Tchaikovsky runs for just over an hour-and-a-half (100 minutes), with no intermission, and the demands it places on the dancer portraying Tchaikovsky are immense.
“The Tchaikovsky dancer is a really big role, he never goes off stage. Balazs Delbo is the first soloist from the National Vienna Ballet,” Yu said.
“I also brought one dancer from my own company [the Graz Opera House], [Ardee] Dionisio, who is from the Philippines. One girl from the Vienna State Opera is Tchaikovsky's wife, [Rafaella] Sant'Anna. She's from Brazil,” he said.
“And the two Taiwanese, Miss Chang and Mr. Hsih, work in Germany. Both have danced this piece three times — 1998 in Taipei, again in 2000 [at the Landestheater Coburg in Germany] and now,” he said.
There are 20 dancers in all, including a young boy, who portrays the composer as a child.
“You know, to use Taiwanese dancers to dance classical ballet is very difficult,” he said, because there is no really professional ballet company here.
He hastened to note, however, that Tchaikovsky is “not so classical. It has point shoes, but its really free.”
Yu said that he wanted to give young Taiwanese dancers a chance to work with professional ballet dancers, and that is why he gave up his summer vacation to come back to Taipei to do this piece, and why he brought the five dancers with him.
“So many young dancers here want to dance, but don't know how or where,” he said.
“I was lucky,” he said. “I was the first dancer in Europe from Taiwan.
After graduating from the Chinese Culture University, he studied at the Royal Ballet School in The Hague, Netherlands, before going on to dance with the Ballet Royal de Wallonie in Belgium, and with companies in Revier and Osnabruck, Germany.
He began working as a choreographer while in Osnabruck, and continued when he became ballet master for the National Theater in Coburg, Germany. In 2001 he moved to Graz.
“I got a national scholarship [to go to Europe to study dance], so I want to do something for the society here,” he said.
But working in Taiwan is very different from working in Europe, especially if you are trying to create a show that must travel to different-sized stages and theaters.
“Outside of Taipei, the places [we are going] have no lights, no crew, so I have to do things [myself], we will have to make adjustments [since] we are projecting a lot of pictures.”
The life of an artist is never an easy one.
Performance Notes:
What: Water Reflection Dance Ensemble - Tchaikovsky - None But The Lonely Heart.
When: Wednesday and Thursday, July 26 and 27, at 7:30pm
Where: Metropolitan Hall (城市舞台), 25 Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei (臺北市八德路三段25號)
Tickets: NT$400, NT$500, NT$800, NT$1,000 and NT$1,200; available online at www.artsticket.com.tw
Other Venues (all performance at 7:30pm):
Sunday, July 30 at the Taipei County Arts Center (台北縣藝文中心), 62 Zhuangjing Rd, Banqiao City, Taipei County (台北縣板橋市莊敬路62號)
Wednesday, Aug. 2, at the Tainan Municipal Cultural Center Performance Hall (台南市立文化中心演藝廳), 332 Chunghua E Rd Sec 3, Tainan City (台南市中華東路三段332號)
Friday, Aug. 4, at the Chungli Arts Center (中壢藝術館音樂廳), 16 Chungmei Rd, Chungli City (中壢市中美路16號)
Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Cultural Affiars Bureau of Hsinchu County (新竹縣文化局演藝廳), 146 Xianzheng 9th Rd, Chubei City, Hsinchu County (新竹縣竹北市縣政九路146號)
Wednesday, Aug. 9 at the Taichung County Cultural Hall (台中縣立文化中心), 782 Yuanhuan E Rd, Fungyuan City, Taichung County (台中縣豐原市圓環東路782號)
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