Dancing Diva (臺灣舞孃), dubbed “Taiwan’s first Broadway-style tourist spectacular,” premieres at Eda Royal Theater (義大皇家劇院) on Feb. 9 and runs for a total of 74 shows until April 28.
Eighteen months in the making, the ambitious, unprecedented show is the brainchild of noted advertising professional Jerry Fan (范可欽).
“I conceive it as Taiwan’s first Broadway show because a show needs to be industry and tourism oriented to run for years,” Fan told the Taipei Times in a phone interview.
Photo courtesy of Serina Liu and Zhai Xiaowei
“It’s done on a scale comparable to Phantom of the Opera.”
Conceived and written by Fan, the show features Taiwanese celebrity/dancing queen Serina Liu (劉真) in the title role and China’s acclaimed one-legged dancer Zhai Xiaowei (翟孝偉) as her confidante and reticent admirer.
The production is directed by Hsu Chieh-hui (許傑輝) and choreographed by Kent Chou (周志坤). Award-winning pop producer Eric Hung (洪敬堯) serves as music director, composing all the music, which includes three theme songs. The main theme song Love is the Most Beautiful Thing (愛是最美妙的事) is performed by pop songstress Freya Lim (林凡).
Dancing Diva tells the story of a beautiful Taiwanese pole dancer leaving the countryside to pursue her dreams in the big city. As she inches closer to her dream, her agent’s treachery shatters her plans, eventually leaving her with nothing. As the final competition for “Taiwan’s Got Talent” approaches, she realizes that her only dance partner is a one-legged clown who has been guarding her.
“There is an unspoken romance going on between the girl and the clown,” Fan said.
The show runs for 100 minutes, with eight thematic dance routines rendered with a distinct Taiwanese flair.
Liu will tackle modern ballet, pole dancing and silk rope dancing in addition to her trademark ballroom dancing. She will be backed by a 30-person dance troupe on ensemble dance numbers.
The production’s unprecedented NT$80 million budget will furnish it with the kind of visual and musical razzle-dazzle rarely seen on the stage in Taiwan. Fan has managed this production with two performing teams and plans to move the show to Macau later this year after it wraps up in Kaohsiung.
“I want the audiences to go home with a warm message,” said Fan. “There must be cracks in life for sunshine to seep through.”
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
The Taipei Times last week reported that the Control Yuan said it had been “left with no choice” but to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the central government budget, which left it without a budget. Lost in the outrage over the cuts to defense and to the Constitutional Court were the cuts to the Control Yuan, whose operating budget was slashed by 96 percent. It is unable even to pay its utility bills, and in the press conference it convened on the issue, said that its department directors were paying out of pocket for gasoline
On March 13 President William Lai (賴清德) gave a national security speech noting the 20th year since the passing of China’s Anti-Secession Law (反分裂國家法) in March 2005 that laid the legal groundwork for an invasion of Taiwan. That law, and other subsequent ones, are merely political theater created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have something to point to so they can claim “we have to do it, it is the law.” The president’s speech was somber and said: “By its actions, China already satisfies the definition of a ‘foreign hostile force’ as provided in the Anti-Infiltration Act, which unlike
RSS