Capital Ballet Taipei (台北首督芭蕾舞團), the 2009 Taishin Arts Award winner for performing arts, begins a three-city tour of its latest program, Scenery of Four Colors (四色風景), tonight at Taipei’s Metropolitan Hall.
The program consists of four contemporary, yet very different works; three by young(ish) Taiwanese choreographers and one by Hsu Chin-feng (徐進豐), who founded the company back in 1990 with his wife, Lee Shu-hui (李淑惠).
Wang Mei-hua (王美華), who was a principal dancer with the company before moving to New York City in 1999, created The Other Shore. This is not the first time that Wang, who is entering her sixth season as a dancer with NYC-based Armitage Gone! Dance, known for its “punk ballet” approach, has created a piece for her old company. Her first choreographic commission for Capital Ballet Taipei premiered in May 2006.
Photo Courtesy of Capital Ballet Taipei
The darkly elegant The Other Shore is perhaps the most classical of the four works, if you define “classical” as including toe shoes and tulle skirts.
The 39-year-old Cheng Li-li (鄭莉莉), a Chinese Culture University graduate who now lives in Grenoble, France, has been keeping busy in recent years with two French ballet groups: Sylvie Guillermain Dance Company and Francois Veyrunes’ 47.49 Dance Company.
Her piece for this weekend, Losing Control? (失去控制), has a very contemporary, edgy feel.
Photo Courtesy of Capital Ballet Taipei
Shih Kun-chen (施坤成) used to dance with the Neo-Classic Dance Company (新古典舞團), but has been working in Austria for the past few years. Her The Beautiful Mill Girls (美麗的磨坊少女) is set to a selection of German songs and gives the women in the troupe a chance to show off their acting skills as well as their technique.
The piece by Hsu, the company’s artistic director, Three Scherzos (三首詼諧曲), is a funny, quirky work that weaves several stories together and includes two not very graceful would-be “ballerinas,” lots of colorful striped tights and a pair of women who have been enjoying their wine just a bit too much.
One of the interesting things about this production is how the three guest choreographers, who all started with basically the same level of ballet training in Taiwan, have been influenced by their work and studies abroad. Their pieces will give local audiences a chance to compare the differing styles of very modern European and US ballet troupes.
Photo Courtesy of Capital Ballet Taipei
Local ballet companies have always had a tough time competing against the more popular local modern dance troupes and visiting foreign ballet companies, but Capital Ballet Taipei has been standing its ground and producing some very innovative and highly polished works for many years. The dancers are among the most talented in Taipei’s ballet world, and Hsu has set an impressive standard for choreography, especially his lifts and group sets, as well as the creative use of props, making the troupe’s annual productions well worth seeing.
After this weekend’s shows, the troupe takes Scenery of Four Colors on the road to Hsinchu on Oct. 21 and Chiayi on Oct. 22.
Photo Courtesy of Capital Ballet Taipei
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