Introducing youngsters to the world
Born in 1977, the 36-year-old Wang is in the midst of what are typically a dancer’s prime years.
His first teacher was Jennifer Lee, the first director of Taiwan’s first professional ballet company, Theater Ballet-Taipei. Lee went on to found the Four Seasons Dance Centre in 1986, one year after Theater Ballet-Taipei disbanded. After establishing the center’s classical ballet program, she began auditioning 10-year-olds for places, offering them long-term, structured training free of charge. Wang was among the first group of children Lee recruited.
Four Seasons invited American ballet teacher John Barker to teach classes in Taiwan three times. With Barker as his teacher, Wang became even more committed to a career in classical ballet.
Wang’s full scholarship to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School at the age of 15 marked the start of 13 years of study and performance abroad.
After graduating, he became a professional dancer with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and the Colorado Ballet, touring the US, Europe and Asia several times. Wang even reached the finals of the New York International Ballet Competition in 2000, and performed a solo in the gala’s presentation of Don Quixote.
Persuaded to return to Taiwan by his family eight years ago, he began to recognize the extent to which Taiwan’s ballet scene differs from the international one.
“Taiwan doesn’t have a single professional classical ballet troupe,” says Wang’s wife, Lu Ziling. “Nor does it have a ballet theater that meets [international] standards.”
Watching young Korean, Japanese, and mainland Chinese dancers take over international ballet competitions, debunking the myth that “Asians can’t dance ballet,” made Wang still more anxious about the future of Taiwanese ballet.
Though young people today begin their study of ballet at the age of six or seven—Wang himself didn’t start until he was 10—they often give it up due to academic pressures or career plans. Commenting on this phenomenon, Wang observes: “A lot of young people enjoy ballet, but few pursue it. They give it up because they lack venues to perform in and a path to advance along, or they simply see no future in it.”
That being the case, Wang looked for other places young students could perform. In 2009, he began working with several international ballet schools to arrange admissions tests in Taiwan and save parents the expense of traveling abroad for them. His goal has been to bridge the distance between young dancers and their dreams.
Wang and his wife have poured heart and soul into their work because “we’ve been inspired by the many, many talented kids.”
The mothers of two participants in the Grand Prix remarked to one another during the competition’s intermission: “This event has motivated my kid to continue studying ballet.”
“We didn’t have this kind of competition when I was young, so I switched to studying modern dance. I got back into ballet after starting university, but none of the ballet schools wanted me [because I was too old].”