Dance lovers looking for a Valentine’s Day treat need look no further than the Experimental Theater this weekend, where the Kaohsiung City Ballet (KCB, 高雄城市芭蕾舞團) will be premiering Dance Shoe 2009 (2009點子鞋).
KCB founder Chang Hsiu-ru (張秀如) began the Dance Shoe series six years ago to provide a platform for ballet choreographers, and it has been a boon to the choreographers, KCB dancers and audiences alike. For the choreographers, most of whom are freelancers, it is a key opportunity to have their work seen, while the dancers learn to work in a variety of styles and with a variety of personalities.
There are six choreographers in this year’s lineup. Janet Chang (張慈妤), Kao Hsin-yu (高辛毓) and Chang Ya-ting (張雅婷) all took part in Dance Shoe 2008, while Wang Kuo-chuen (王國權) had a piece in the 2007 show. Chien Liang-che (簡良哲) is truly a new face, and the sixth, former Thomas/Ortiz Dance Company dancer Yeh Ming-hwa (葉名樺), is new to Dance Shoe, although her collaboration with Chen Wu-kang (陳武康) — Dimmer — was in last August’s New Productions of Emerging Taiwanese Choreographers series at the Experimental Theater.
Chang was Yeh’s first ballet teacher and Yeh danced with the KCB for several years. Yeh said her former teacher called her several months ago and asked her to create a piece for this year’s show.
“I just started to choreograph recently so I think she wanted to give me a chance,” Yeh said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
“My piece is called Tightrope Walker (走索人). It’s a duet for myself and a friend. She’s the same age and we used to dance together at KCB. She was also in Dimmer,” Yeh said.
Set to the music of John Cage and Johann Sebastian Bach, the piece explores the themes of balance, stability and trust, things Yeh said are key to both a ballerina on point and a tightrope walker.
When asked what inspired her, Yeh laughed and said: “First, Miss Chang said told me we had to wear point shoes.”
“I wanted to do something different, not dance on point. I tried several things … but in the end I told myself we could dance in a line, just change the steps,” she said. “It’s about trying to find your balance.”
Dance Shoe 2009 will also be performed twice in Tainan on Feb. 21 and twice in Fengshan, Kaohsiung County, on March 7.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS