Scheduling problems have kept the Kaohsiung City Ballet (KCB, 高雄城市芭蕾舞團) from making its almost annual pilgrimage north to Taipei with its Dance Shoe (點子鞋) production, which is a loss for Taipei ballet fans, given the caliber of last year’s show.
Company founder Chang Hsiu-ru (張秀如) could not get her troupe into the Experimental Theater before the venue closed for its annual Lunar New Year renovation and clean-up period, and so had to settle for two-city tour.
KCB premiered this year’s Dance Shoe in Greater Tainan two weekends ago and this weekend it returns to its “home theater,” Chihteh Hall at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center, for two shows.
Photo Courtesy of Liu Ren-haur
This 12th version of Dance Shoe features works by four Taiwanese choreographers and one foreign freelancer, all of whom will be familiar names for the company’s fans.
The local choreographers, in keeping with Chang’s desire to showcase southern talent, are either all from southern Taiwan or now work there.
Tsai Po-chen (蔡博丞), who has had pieces in several earlier shows, created the stellar Little Star (小小星辰) last year, while Wang Wei-ming (王維銘), a former Cloud Gate dancer who now teaches at Shu-Te University in Greater Kaohsiung, had a piece in last year and in 2013. Lai Hung-chung (賴翃中) and Dai Ting-ru (戴鼎如), a dancer with the company who is now working on a graduate degree in Taipei, have also contributed in the past.
Photo Courtesy of Liu Ren-haur
Chang hired Romanian dancer-choreographer-videographer Constantin Georgescu to restage the full-length ballet Coppelia (柯碧莉亞) for the company to perform in the Kaohsiung Spring Festival last year and her dancers responded well to the challenge. For this year’s Dance Shoe he has created a work titled Ladies and Fans.
The chance to work with such a variety of choreographers provides valuable experience for Chang’s dancers as well as providing dance audiences a chance to see a combination of modern and classical technique in one setting.
While some dance fans, this reviewer included, are heading south this weekend to see the shows, Chang and the KCB will hopefully be able to return to Taipei with next year’s Dance Shoe.
Photo Courtesy of Liu Ren-haur
Photo Courtesy of Liu Ren-haur
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