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Five and ten make one

Ancient Chinese sacrifices and Greek gods searching for love are two of the stories explored in Embrace. PHOTO: COURTESY OF NTUA

Ho Hsiao-mei (何曉玫) isn't afraid to mix and match when it comes to modern dance choreography.

Her boundary-pushing productions include 2006's Island of Silence (默島樂園), which ran as part of the National CKS Cultural Center's New Dance Idea (新點子舞展) series. Audiences loved Island because it mixed traditional Taiwanese stage forms and puppet theater with betel nut girls and other elements of modern Taiwanese culture.

With Embrace - which opens tonight at Taipei University of the Arts - she switches gears and serves as artistic director for a work that brings together five young choreographers and 10 dancers.

The performance combines Chinese and Western historical tales with dance forms ranging from traditional Chinese to contemporary.

Ho says her choreographers chose different styles of performance to give audiences a taste of different forms. This also allows dancers to explore different dance genres.

The highlight of the performance is a traditional Chinese dance based on an ancient ritual called huadiao (花雕).

Performance notes: What: Embrace When: Today and tomorrow at 7:30pm Where: Taipei National University of the Arts (國立臺北藝術大學音樂廳), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Beitou Dist, Taipei City (台北市北投區學園路1號) Tickets: NT$350 and are available through NTCH ticketing or online at www.artsticket.com

"When a village wants to make wine, they first have to sacrifice a young girl," Ho explained. The spirit of the young girl then enters the wine, improving its flavor. She noted this was to be interpreted as a somber tale, and the sadness is reflected in the melancholic movements of the dancers.

Other pieces include a stage adaptation of Faust, in which modern dance is used to interpret the tempestuous struggle of a man who sells his soul to the devil, and two solos that use water as a metaphor to investigate the movement and discovery of a young woman's body. The final piece is a celebration of the struggles Greek gods undergo in their search for love.
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