The TNUA Department of Dance held its three-week TAIPEIDEA 2010 series of Maestro Lectures and workshops in August, with diverse activities and courses designed by internationally renowned dancers in various areas.
The program saw over 150 participants, including students, teachers and dancers, sharing the feast of dance in the summer at TNUA between August 2 and 20.
TAIPEIDEA, which marked its seventh edition this year, invited 10 scholarship winners from the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific (WDA-AP). Therefore, apart from local students, the program also saw participants from Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Cambodia and the United States.
Prof. Heng Ping, dean of the School of Dance, noted that TAIPEIDEA, since its first edition, has invited many internationally renowned maestros to TNUA, offering Taiwan’s dance lovers chances to learn, and allowing the development of Taiwan’s professional dance to get in close touch with the rest of the world.
Department of Dance Prof. Yunyu Wang, the director of the program, said this year’s activities combined creativity and the profession of dance in order to train talents in the fields of dance education, performing, creative work, research and multimedia dance music. The program also aimed at broadening the perspective of the dance art, honing dance skills, and promoting dance to the community, and elevate Taiwan’s status on the international stage of dance, Prof. Wang said.
TAIPEIDEA 2010 offered 13 courses in modern dance, contemporary dance, ballet, contact improvisation, choreography, Capoeira, Franklin Method, dance music and others. Lecturers were from such countries as Switzerland, Germany, the United States and Taiwan, including Philipp Egli, Damian Gmuer, Claudia Howard Queen, Jan Dunn, Cheng Li Chou, H.T. Chen, and Hui-chen Tsai.
After three weeks of intensive training, students concluded the summer program by staging a performance on August 20 to demonstrated what they had leant.
TAIPEIDEA is meant to be an international activity designed to give local and foreign dancers chances to hone their skills. It is hoped that it can become an international dance festival in the future.