Local business groups, non-profit foundations and individuals donated more than NT$370 million (US$12 million) to the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre to help rebuild a rehearsal studio after the original was destroyed by a fire earlier this year, the troupe announced over the weekend.
“The generous donations embody our society’s tremendous expectations for Cloud Gate and will encourage it to pursue a dream of continuity and sharing,” said Lin Hwai-min (林懷民), the troupe’s founder and artistic director.
The former writer-turned dancer/choreographer made the remarks after heading a group of Cloud Gate 2 young dancers to make a deep bow before more than 40,000 fans who had turned out to watch a thank-you performance at the National Theater and National Concert Hall plaza in Taipei on Saturday evening.
“This is a gathering where we can share and express our gratitude,” Lin told the audience before the performance. “We want to express out heartfelt thanks.”
Lin said Cloud Gate would make the best use of the donations and would welcome other local performing troupes to share its new studio and facilities.
The 35-year-old dance company’s 1,324m² rehearsal studio, costume, props and production archives were lost in a fire on Feb. 11.
Earlier on Saturday, the troupe held a thanksgiving tea party. Speaking at the occasion, Stan Shih (施振榮), founder of the Acer Group, who now heads Cloud Gate’s fund-raising committee, said board members of the dance company had launched a fund-raising drive in private in late February.
A total of 175 business groups and their affiliated foundations, as well as 3,973 individuals, donated money to help the group rebuild a rehearsal studio, Shih said, adding that the biggest single donation of NT$50 million came from an anonymous business group. Many individual donors also requested anonymity.
“We believe that the donation was the biggest-ever private investment in a non-profit cultural enterprise in Taiwan’s history,” Shih said.
Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), a Nobel laureate who is Cloud Gate’s honorary chairman, said that while the fire had destroyed many of the troupe’s valuable assets, it had also created new opportunities.
The Taipei County Government has offered a disused art and education site in Tamsui (淡水) to house Cloud Gate’s new rehearsal studio.
As a result of government red-tape and the absence of legislation regarding private investment in cultural enterprises, construction at the new site has yet to begin.
Lin urged the government to revise regulations to speed up the construction project.
“Otherwise, inflation could cause cost overruns and hinder the project,” he said.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS