Being innovative is not the only characteristic of artists who achieve eminence. Persistence and discipline play more crucial roles in enabling budding performers to stand out, according to Yang Chao (楊照), editor-in-chief of the Journalist Magazine.
Yang's remark was made as he lauded the distinguished career of 45-year-old Lo Man-fei (羅曼菲), a renowned dancer and choreographer in Taiwan, listed on Aug. 21 as a winner of the National Culture and Arts Foundation (NCAF, 國家文化藝術基金會) awards.
"Creative energy does not guarantee them success. Only with the imposition of self-discipline and strict self-control can they make themselves conspicuous figures in the fields of art and culture.
CNA FILE PHOTO
These are the factors behind Lo's winning the award for dance this year," said Yang at a press conference to publicize the prizes yesterday.
Lo, an associate professor at the National Institute of Arts, Artistic Director of Cloud Gate II (雲門舞集II) and Director of the Taipei Crossover Dance Company (越界舞團), is best noted for her solo performance in Requiem (輓歌), in which she maintains a spin for more than 10 minutes.
Requiem is choreographed by Lin Hwai-min (
"I just knew I could do it. Spinning requires abundant physical strength and stern leg training. Before I took the role [as a soloist] in Requiem, I knew I had to train myself even better -- for me, this meant I had to keep dancing.
"People think constant physical movement will wear you out. But it is not the case for us dancers. We've discovered a way to rest while moving," Lo was once quoted as saying when questioned how she could keep her balance for so long.
A dancer for nearly 30 years, Lo has developed through dancing a philosophical approach to her art.
She once said that when dancers try to relax, they do not completely stop drawing upon their energy.
Physical power for good dancers is like a stream, which runs slowly but uninterruptedly, she says.
The way young dancers dance is like tap water rushing out of a faucet: the flow will be exhausted very quickly.
More experienced dancers know how to control the flow of energy. They can adjust the volume of the flow; sometimes they tune it to flow faster, sometimes more slowly.
It is all within the prerogative of the dancer, according to Lo.
Lo began her professional career in 1974 with the Neo-Classic Dance Company of Taiwan.
She later continued her training at the Martha Graham Dance School, the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance, and the Jose Limon Dance School in New York.
While in New York, she took part in various theatrical works, including the Broadway musical The King and I, starring Yul Bryner.
She is a highly acclaimed soloist and choreographer for Cloud Gate.
NCAF is a non-profit organization founded in 1996, whose goals include providing locales for cultural-artistic endeavors, encouraging cultural-artistic work and improving cultural-artistic standards.
The NCAF awards annual prizes in five art categories, including dance, literature, music, theater, and painting.
The other four winners this year are: Writer, Yang Mu (
The awards ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 30.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS