Oct
8
On pointe and off the walls
Filed Under CH
For the past several years, ballet lovers in Taiwan have been able to tell the passage of time by the annual return of Tainan-born, Austria-based choreographer Allen Yu (余能盛) with a new production for the Chamber Ballet Taipei (台北室內芭蕾舞團).
You knew summer was waning when Yu’s handpicked dancers took the stage, yet, this year August came and went without a new show.
It turns out that it has been a year of many changes for Yu and the company.
Earlier this year, the Tainan Municipal Cultural Center marked its 31st anniversary by making Yu its first artistic director. Yu has given up his posts as deputy ballet director and choreographer at the Graz Opera House in Austria so that he could devote more time to projects in Tainan, where his parents still live, although he will continue to be based in Graz.
With one eye on the future and possible international tours, Yu also changed the name of the company to Formosa Ballet (福爾摩沙芭蕾舞團) to better reflect the troupe’s origin.
If that was not enough, he decided against choreographing his latest production to Western classical music, going with traditional Chinese music instead.
The new work, Pirouette—When Ballet Meets Chinese Music (天旋—當芭蕾遇到國樂) opened in Tainan last weekend and moves to Kaohsiung this weekend for a Sunday performance at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center’s Chihteh Hall.
Yu choose works by three well-known composers, Ma Shui-long’s (馬水龍) Bamboo Flute Concerto (梆笛協奏曲), Liu Chang-yuan’s (劉長遠) Variation of Emotions (抒情變奏曲) and Lu Liang-hui’s (盧亮輝) The Four Seasons (四季).
Yu said he wanted to show that classical ballet and classical Chinese music can work together.
“The three composers, one is from China, one from Hong Kong and one from Taiwan; one is classical, one neo-classical and one modern, while the techniques are also a mix of classical, neo-classical and modern ballet,” he said in a telephone interview last week.
Bamboo Flute Concerto was first written for Western orchestra, but later adapted to Chinese instruments.
“I imagined dancers as bamboo, the staging is quite big, with lots of bamboo trees,” Yu said.
As for Variation of Emotions, the second of three movements changes tempo quickly, making it difficult for the musicians and dancers.
Yu said that he invited The Four Seasons composer to watch the company’s rehearsals in Taipei, and Lu had been quite excited.
“For spring, there are a lot of flowers, the tutus are very colorful. Summer is very hot, a couple looks for water. In the autumn, the leaves are fading, the boyfriend/husband has to go away, leaving the woman alone at home… Usually in the West the music for winter is very quiet, but in Chinese [music] it is louder, very strong, because of the Lunar New Year celebrations. I think the music is very happy,” Yu said.
The 25-member cast rehearsed in Taipei for five weeks in July and August, taking a break while Yu went back to Austria. When he returned, they had two more weeks to pull the show together before the premiere.
As usual with Yu’s annual shows, his dancers have the luxury — for Taiwan — of performing with musicians, this time with the Tainan City Traditional Orchestra (臺南市立民族管弦樂團) under conductor Liu Wen-hsiang (劉文祥). However, this is another headache for Yu, since not all of the six theaters in the five-city tour have orchestra pits, which means he has to find room for the musicians on stage.
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