Elizabeth Cameron Dalman became the pioneer of modern dance in Australia when she founded the Australian Dance Theater in 1965. It was the first modern dance group in her country and the first to be granted a government subsidy. For nearly forty years, Dalman has taught and collaborated with numerous dancers in various countries, including Taiwan.
One year after Grace Hsiao (
PHOTO: VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
In Crossing Tracks II -- A Meeting of Two Cultures (
Sun and Moon, the opening piece of the show, is adopted from an Australian aboriginal legend, which represents the sun as a woman and the moon as a man.
"In modern dance, female dancers' movements are usually more activated and male dancers' more smooth. It's just like the legend," Dalman said.
This piece will be performed in Taiwan for the second time. Dalman staged it in 1971 when she was touring in Taiwan. Her performance so inspired Tsai Ruei-yuei (
Prayer, created in 1972, will probably strike a chord with audiences today with its human-rights theme and anti-war message. Based on a true story that occurred during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the dance tells the tragic story of a Catholic girl who falls in a love with a Protestant soldier, then accidentally shoots him dead. Grace Hsiao's dancers act out the story with such precision and feeling that this piece is the highlight of the show.
The only shortcoming of this otherwise superb production is that Round-15 (
Crossing Tracks II -- A Meeting of Two Cultures will be performed at Round-15 Theater, 3F, 40-1 Chungshan N. Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei (
From an anonymous office in a New Delhi mall, matrimonial detective Bhavna Paliwal runs the rule over prospective husbands and wives — a booming industry in India, where younger generations are increasingly choosing love matches over arranged marriage. The tradition of partners being carefully selected by the two families remains hugely popular, but in a country where social customs are changing rapidly, more and more couples are making their own matches. So for some families, the first step when young lovers want to get married is not to call a priest or party planner but a sleuth like Paliwal with high-tech spy
With raging waters moving as fast as 3 meters per second, it’s said that the Roaring Gate Channel (吼門水道) evokes the sound of a thousand troop-bound horses galloping. Situated between Penghu’s Xiyu (西嶼) and Baisha (白沙) islands, early inhabitants ranked the channel as the second most perilous waterway in the archipelago; the top was the seas around the shoals to the far north. The Roaring Gate also concealed sunken reefs, and was especially nasty when the northeasterly winds blew during the autumn and winter months. Ships heading to the archipelago’s main settlement of Magong (馬公) had to go around the west side
When Portugal returned its colony Macao to China in 1999, coffee shop owner Daniel Chao was a first grader living in a different world. Since then his sleepy hometown has transformed into a bustling gaming hub lined with glittering casinos. Its once quiet streets are now jammed with tourist buses. But the growing wealth of the city dubbed the “Las Vegas of the East” has not brought qualities of sustainable development such as economic diversity and high civic participation. “What was once a relaxed, free place in my childhood has become a place that is crowded and highly commercialized,” said Chao. Macao yesterday
For the authorities that brought the Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道) into existence, the route is as much about culture as it is about hiking. Han culture dominates the coastal and agricultural flatlands of Tainan and Chiayi counties, but as the Greenway climbs along its Tribal Trail (原鄉之路) section, hikers pass through communities inhabited by members of the Tsou Indigenous community. Leaving Chiayi County’s Dapu Village (大埔), walkers follow Provincial Highway 3 to Dapu Bridge where a sign bearing the Tsou greeting “a veo veo yu” marks the point at which the Greenway turns off to follow Qingshan Industrial Road (青山產業道路)
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