Ho Hsiao-mei (何曉玫) has a discerning eye for dancers/choreographers, which is what makes her Meimage Dance Company’s New Choreographer Project such an annual treat.
Six years ago she launched the project as a way of highlighting the numerous talented dancers who graduate from Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA, 國立台北藝術大學),where she is an associate professor of dance, or other schools and then leave the country because Taiwan — neither as a nation nor a dance market — is big enough to support all its graduates.
Ho views the program as both a homecoming and an exchange: family members and friends do not often have a chance to see these dancers perform with their foreign companies, while the very act of living and working abroad influences and changes them as people, performers and choreographers, experiences that they can share with local audiences through their creations both on stage and in workshops.
Photo courtesy of Terry Lin
In addition, so that these dancers can keep up with what is happening creatively in Taiwan, they are paired with local new-media theater artists who add stage design and multimedia elements to the shows.
The five previous productions have showcased such diverse overseas-based performers such as Chen Yun-ru (陳韻如), Lee Chen-wei (李貞葳), Chang Chien-ming (張建明) and Yuan Shang-jen (袁尚仁).
The two women and one man selected for this year’s production are all TNUA graduates: Tien Tsai-wei (田采薇), Hung Tsai-hsi (洪綵希) and Chien Lin-yi (簡麟懿).
Photo courtesy of Terry Lin
Tien is a member of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in Germany, which she joined last year after having performed with the company as a guest artist. Her piece, The Man, is a duet that she will be performing with Jan Mollmer.
Hung, who studied in Australia after graduation and has worked with the Australian Dance Theater, Tasdance and Chunky Move Dance Company, now lives in New York City, where she is a member of the contemporary dance troupe Abarukas, and co-artistic director of Cross Move with Chinese dancer Hui Guanglei (回廣磊).
Hung’s solo, Lan huzi (藍鬍子), does not have an English title; it literally means “Blue Beard.”
Photo courtesy of Terry Lin
Chien works closer to home, in Niigata, Japan, where he has been a member of Jo Kanamori’s Noism troupe since 2013, a year after he graduated from TNUA. The 12-year-old Noism is the only resident dance company in a publicly funded theater in Japan.
Chien's solo, Chiu (囚), translates as “prisoner,” but the company said “Jo” is his preferred English title.
Of the four shows this weekend in the Performance Hall on the top floor of Eslite Bookstore’s Xinyi branch in Taipei, the only tickets left are for tomorrow’s matinee and evening performances.
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