Allen Yu (余能盛) feels a close connection with Peter Tchaikovsky. The Taiwanese ballet dancer and choreographer says he loves the 19th-century Russian composer's music, which he has frequently used in his own choreography, and he has read lots of biographies of him.
Last year he gave us a glimpse into the tortured composer's life by restaging his 1998 ballet, Tchaikovsky - None But the Lonely Heart for the Water Reflection Dance Ensemble. This year he is expanding on some of the themes raised in that work for When Ballet Meets Tchaikovsky at Taipei's Metropolitan Hall.
He's been hard at work for the past month, using his vacation time from the Opera House in Graz, Austria - where he is the deputy ballet director and choreographer - to put the finishing touches on three new pieces that make up Ballet Meets Tchaikovsky.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CHAMBER OF BALLET TAIPEI
Yu is also a man with a mission. He wants to raise the standards of ballet dancers in this country; standards that he says have sadly declined in recent years.
The situation "is even worse than 20 years ago before I went to Europe. Full-length ballets - no one does them here anymore so ballet dancers don't have the experience, the technique," he said. " We need to build up the dancers here, so I am doing my best to help build up the system."
For the dancers who auditioned for him during a brief visit he made in April, that has meant a lot of hard work. He selected 19 dancers and since he came back to Taipei at the beginning of last month, they have all been putting in long days. He said he told them to drop everything else, no outside classes, no other jobs.
"From 9 [am] to 10:30 [am] we have daily class. After that we have rehearsal until 5pm. The movements [in his ballets] are very fast, so you need strong feet and strong technique," he said. "This is how we dance in Europe. But the dancers here aren't used to this."
As he did last year, Yu has brought his soloists from Europe. Philippines-born Ardee Dionisio, who is a soloist with the Graz Opera House, was a standout in last year's production. Daniel Cimpean, a Romanian soloist with the Darmstadt Staatstheater in Germany, danced here several years ago in Yu's production of The Lady of the Camellias. Two new faces are from the National Ballet of Hungary: Bajari Levente is a principal dancer with that company and Pazar Krisztina is a soloist.
Tchaikovsky's music has long been a favorite of ballet masters and choreographers. Yu selected some pieces that will be familiar to ballet audiences, and one that is not. The first piece he used is the Concerto for violin in D, also known as Serenade, which George Balanchine used for his famous work for the New York City Ballet. The second piece is the Piano Concerto No 1 op.23, and the third is Symphony No 4 in F minor op.36, which Yu said gave him the biggest challenge - and headaches.
The three ballets that make up When Ballet Meet Tchiakovsky each tell a separate story, but Yu says that by the end, their connection is clear.
The first is a meditation on spiritual love, of living your life hemmed in by society, "like a bird in a cage," Yu said.
In the second piece, he said, the soloist is "like a bird looking for its way to freedom." In the third, the bird is finally free to fly away from its cage, he said - but not necessarily happier for it.
Yu says he loves Tchaikovsky's music for its combination of romance and sadness and because it provides him "with limitless imagination."
"It provokes me so much that I want to present my inner feelings on stage," he said.
Late last month Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro told the Philippine Senate that the nation has sufficient funds to evacuate the nearly 170,000 Filipino residents in Taiwan, 84 percent of whom are migrant workers, in the event of war. Agencies have been exploring evacuation scenarios since early this year, she said. She also observed that since the Philippines has only limited ships, the government is consulting security agencies for alternatives. Filipinos are a distant third in overall migrant worker population. Indonesia has over 248,000 workers, followed by roughly 240,000 Vietnamese. It should be noted that there are another 170,000
Enter the Dragon 13 will bring Taiwan’s first taste of Dirty Boxing Sunday at Taipei Gymnasium, one highlight of a mixed-rules card blending new formats with traditional MMA. The undercard starts at 10:30am, with the main card beginning at 4pm. Tickets are NT$1,200. Dirty Boxing is a US-born ruleset popularized by fighters Mike Perry and Jon Jones as an alternative to boxing. The format has gained traction overseas, with its inaugural championship streamed free to millions on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Taiwan’s version allows punches and elbows with clinch striking, but bans kicks, knees and takedowns. The rules are stricter than the
Next week, candidates will officially register to run for chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). By the end of Friday, we will know who has registered for the Oct. 18 election. The number of declared candidates has been fluctuating daily. Some candidates registering may be disqualified, so the final list may be in flux for weeks. The list of likely candidates ranges from deep blue to deeper blue to deepest blue, bordering on red (pro-Chinese Communist Party, CCP). Unless current Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) can be convinced to run for re-election, the party looks likely to shift towards more hardline
“Far from being a rock or island … it turns out that the best metaphor to describe the human body is ‘sponge.’ We’re permeable,” write Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie in their book Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. While the permeability of our cells is key to being alive, it also means we absorb more potentially harmful substances than we realize. Studies have found a number of chemical residues in human breast milk, urine and water systems. Many of them are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s natural hormones. “They can mimic, block
RSS