Progress in Chinese Dance

November 1982

中文

Lin Li-chen's "Who Am I?

The 1982 Arts Festival was the first large-scale event to be sponsored by the Council for Cultural Planning and Development since its establishment in November last year. The festival was opened by two nights of dance which displayed achievements in the field by the Chinese over the last 30 years. It also provided a chance to see the government's new method of promoting art throughout the nation.

During the past few years, the Republic of China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth. One of the results has been a new emphasis on the quality of life, both physical and spiritual.

In 1979, the Taipei City Government started the ball rolling with a music festival. This was followed by an arts festival sponsored by the Ministry of Education and an international arts festival organized by the Hsin Hsiang Arts Center.

In the past, even though dance was considered an important part of festivals, Chinese dancers and choreographers were not given much encouragement. For instance, the Hsin Hsiang Arts Center invited foreign artists to give performances, while the Taipei City Government spent over US$25,000 to sponsor Yau Ming-li's presentation of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". Works by local artists were given little consideration. To rectify this short coming, the Council for Cultural Planning and Development sponsored the 1982 Arts Festival to encourage local performers and inspire original works by local composers and choreographers. The festival's dance performances were awaited with great anticipation by the nation's artistic community.

The council invited 10 local dancers, Cheng Shu-chi, Huang Li-hsun, Lin Hsiu-wei, Ho Hui-chen, Lin Huai-min, You Hao-yen, Hsu Hui-mei, Lei Ta-peng, Li Hsiao-hua, and Lin Li-chen, to perform their own works.

Of these perhaps the most well known is Lin Huai-min who started the ROC's first professional dance company, the Cloud Gate Dance Ensemble. Lin's style is constantly evolving, and for the 1982 Festival he broke away from his past styles which were heavily influenced by Chinese tradition, and offered a new experimental number.

Cheng Shu-chi, Ho Hui-chen, and Lin Hsiu-wei are graduates of the National Taiwan Academy of Arts who later joined the Cloud Gate troupe and are interested in choreography. Ho remarked, "To dance you need strength, and as you grow older, it becomes difficult to per form on stage. However, choreography and teaching can prolong a dancer's career."

Lin Li-chen, who is also a graduate of the Academy of Arts, and has been teaching at Changan High School for five years, feels the dance festival is a big break through. "Although each artist was only given NT$150,000, it had an enormous effect. For this performance, besides using my own students in my program, I relied on help from many friends in the arts community. I believe the other nine participants did the same, allowing more people than ever to take part. I have heard that they plan to continue holding the festival in this way, and this has given many young dancers hope for the future."

Ho Hui-chen echoed this sentiment. "I could have made the dance simple to fit in with my dancers' levels, or I could have found more talented dancers to put on a better performance. But I didn't do either. I believe the purpose of these performances is not to compete, but rather to encourage new talent. The council gave me this opportunity and I wanted to give these three young dancers a little solo experience, so I made the dance a little difficult to bring out their latent abilities. As a result, I discovered, as we rehearsed, that they had made a lot of progress."

The combined performances of the 10 dancers who took part in the 1982 Arts Festival provided a rare opportunity to observe the current level of Chinese dance, and how naturally traditional culture and modern dance training have been combined in a free environment to create a base for its development.

Government-promoted art movements should be based in traditional culture. They should also contribute to the improvement of the creative environment and development of new talent. Judging from the Council for Cultural Planning and Development's 1982 Arts Festival, it is obvious that the government is on the right track.

[Picture Caption]

Left: Lin Li-chen's "Who Am I?" Right: Li Hsiao-hua's "Ask the Pines".

1. A beautiful number designed by Lin Hsiou-wei. 2. "Cloud Pattern" by Cheng Shu-chi. 3. You Hao-yen's contribution.

Top: "Heroines" by Hsu Hui-mei. Bottom: Huang Li-huan's "That Night".