‘La Dame aux Camelias’ flowers on staying power

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Taiwanese dancer/choreographer Allen Yu (余能盛) must be one of the few people in the world who willingly gives up his summer vacation to spend 14-hour days (if not longer) to do what he does in his regular job: produce ballets. < P>

Yu has returned home from his post as deputy ballet director and choreographer at the Opera House in Graz, Austria, to try to raise the barre — so to speak for — for both dancers and the ballet-going public in Taiwan. He has revived his production of La Dame aux Camelias (The Lady of the Camellias), first produced in Germany in 2000, for his small local company, the Chamber Ballet Taipei, along with giving a series of dance master classes and music lectures.

This is not the first time Yu has brought the ballet, which is based on Alexandre Dumas’ 1868 novel about the doomed courtesan Marguerite Gautier and her young lover, Armand Duval, to Taiwan. He staged it in Taipei in 2003 and then took the production on tour to New Zealand. But he said he has drastically overhauled the show.

“I made a lot of changes from the version seen in 2003 — the group back then was much smaller, I had only five boys. This year the group is much better, the four leads are so good,” Yu said.

Last time around Daniel Cimpean, a Romanian who used to be a soloist with the Darmstadt Staatstheater, danced Armand. This time around he is dancing the role of Armand’s father.

“He’s really good as the father, it’s a big part,” Yu said.

In fact, Yu has nothing but superlatives to say about his leads, who include Nikola Marova, Michal Stipa (Misha) and Alexandre Katsaprov, all principal dancers of the National Theatre in Prague, Czech Republic.

“I changed a lot for Armand and Marguerite. They [Nikola and Misha] are big stars in Prague, dance all the big roles. I changed a lot for the big pas de deux because she can do everything I want. Nikola is unbelievable, her technique, the drama ... She’s absolutely perfect,” he said.

The rest of the 22-member company was recruited from an open audition Yu held in Taipei in March. More than a dozen danced for him last year in When Ballet Meets Tchaikovsky. But Yu says that every year he comes back it feels like he is starting from scratch again with his Taiwanese dancers, because most don’t dance every day.

“The third act is very hard for the whole company, it’s 30 minutes. This year they couldn’t do it at the beginning — they were so heavy [technically], out of condition. I keep telling them they have to have class every day.”

“It’s also hard for the dancers this time because they have never danced with a live orchestra, but it’s good,” he said.

The company will perform this weekend with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra; in Tainan last weekend they danced with the Chimei Philharmonic Orchestra. The man wielding the baton is Dutch conductor Anthony Hermus, whom Yu knew from his work in Germany.

For the score, Yu has chosen to mix and match from the works of Giuseppe Verdi.

“To prepare the music was more difficult than the choreography. I used music from nine different Verdi operas, put together for 100 minutes, then worked with the conductor,” Yu said.

Bringing four guest artists and a conductor from Europe, investing in new costumes and sets — none of this is cheap. But he feels it is all part of building up ballet in Taiwan. And Yu knows he can’t do the job alone.