Taipei Ballet

The grin BEFORE ascending 4 flights to his first class.

The ballet world in Taiwan is small. The ballet world in general is small. Perhaps it should have come as no surprise that when I sought out a ballet school here in Taiwan that I would find I had a connection to it.

But I do, and Kai has taken his first ballet class with the Taiwan Royal Ballet School. Ooh. Ahh. Actually, the studio is smallish, with two large padding-wrapped pillars right in the middle on the 4th floor in an old building in an armpitish area of Taipei. NOT very "royal" feeling.

Squint to see a few familiar names on this poster of the Utah Ballet tour to Taiwan.

I found the school by an internet search and blindly contacted them via the info on their web page. I heard back from the director who studied ballet at the University of Utah. While she danced there, Utah Ballet (the company connected to the University) toured in Taiwan. In fact, the director performed a piece I have also performed, "Good-bye is So Hard to Say," choreographed by a former colleague of mine and current professor of dance at another American university, Jiang Qi.

Given all this, even the fact that Qi is currently here in Taiwan and the three (director, Qi, and myself) have expressed an interest in getting together, nothing has come of any of it and the reception at our arrival to class was cool. I chalk it up to the director, whom I still haven't met yet, being within a few weeks of delivering twins and Qi's busyness teaching class at a local university.

Kai and I met the director's mother - a VERY graceful, much older lady (maybe in her 70's) who is STILL in a leotard for class and can still do the splits! She gave Kai's first class, which I got to stay and spy on, and she recommended we come back on Saturdays for another class with more boys.

I told her we'd like that, and that we'd have to check our schedules because our coming took an hour by public transportation. She was not impressed. She pointed to a dancer walking by and told me she too came from over an hour away. Then she told me of her students for the Saturday and Sunday classes who come from Tai Zhong, probably a two-plus hour commute.

My view of the goings on.

This was all before the class began. This Friday evening class was small if you counted the serious dancers. Including Kai, there were 7. Added to these were older women, some who seemed to hardly be dancing at all but using class as an excuse to... raise their arms? I don't know - one woman moved very much like a primate imitating a ballerina, which sounds terribly rude, and I wanted to laugh out loud at times, but I honestly could hardly tell if she was trying and her effort was just that bad, or if she had a whole other, less evident idea about what she was going for. So THAT was interesting.

And the class was in Chinese. I assumed we'd be fine for all the French that is ballet's common language, but we actually heard very little of that either. Or if it was used, the pronunciation was so different you could almost miss it.

Finally, the pacing of the class was incredibly fast and complicated. Rather than being a class of drills to focus on specific skills or build strength, it was more like a variations class, each combination having it's own variation complete with classical, but very choreographed arms, direction changes, and the kinds of fudges usually only found in choreography. WHEW! As a professional, it would have been a difficult and unfulfilling class, based on the dancing alone. I could hardly believe Kai endured it all to the end... but what choice did he have?

I think he felt MUCH better about how things went when I told him MY take on it all. He told me he didn't like it at all, and I could hardly blame him!

Our heated meal, purchased and eaten at 7-11.

Finally, when it was all said and done, it represented a 5 hour commitment for the both of us. Between the time for class itself, which ran long by about 15 minutes, AND the time it took to get there, AND allowing for enough time before class to warm up, AND getting dinner after because we left the house at 4:30 - a bit to early to eat on the front end - and the trip home (which there weren't seats for the both of us either way), we got back a bit before 9:30. ALL for $400, or about $13. Worth it? Well....

My take: Kai got to take from a teacher who knew ballet, evidenced by her own demonstrations. The serious dancers in the class were strong and had great extension. I don't know how the class they took gave them these gifts, or IF it did, but there is A LOT to be said for peer pressure. And they either had enough familiarity with the teacher's style to quickly grasp all the quirky combinations OR they were ALSO gifted at lightening memories. Either would be an asset to Kai (versatility or fast mind to body translation of choreography). Then there is endurance factor - and the class wasn't just advanced, but it went practically NON-STOP AND must have been incredibly taxing to try and absorb in a foreign language. So Kai also gets to polish his fake-it-till-you-make-it skills which are a boon to audition, early company, and corps de ballet experience. And speaking of dancing well in those settings, the class had ZERO structure when beginning and ending combinations. Dancers simply stopped dancing and bled through the dancers whose turn was just beginning, so it was incredibly chaotic, and must have been frustrating. So THAT was great prep for being able to aggressively claim a space on the dance floor in class or auditions too.

If these aren't reasons enough to go again, then the power to not let something difficult and uncomfortable get the best of you IS. We'll be back.... the next time I have 5 hours to spare! :)

Kai takes a seat on the way home after dancing and being on his feet for HOURS.