Project Overview

Description of Local Community:

Tamsui has been a general name of a place and it refers to the village constructed along Tamsui River Basin. It is located at north coast of the mouth of Tamsui River in northwest of Taiwan. It is between Datun Mountain and Tamsui River and the old name was "Huwei" translated from Ketagalan language. The etymology is "Hobe" which means river mouth. In Tamsui near the mouth of river, there is not only the popular and crowded old street and the landscape with extensive view, but also the Cloud Gate Theater with cultural characteristics. It is the first creative park of performance art in Chinese world and is the significant cultural landscape of Tamsui.

Tamsui is the new location of Cloud Gate in 2009. The old site of Cloud Gate Theater is Radio Taiwan International of Tamsui which has been a memorial building. It is next to Hobe Fort, established by Liu Ming-chuan in 1886 after Sino-French War and Tamsui Golf Club which has been founded for 95 years. From the place, we can overlook Mt. Guanyin and the mouth of Tamsui River. As the first creative and cultural park of performance art in Taiwan, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre promotes Taiwan with world tour. It becomes the exchange platform for national and foreign artists. With abundant natural landscape and art, it is the place with talents and culture.

Outline of the Project:

Everything is difficult at the beginning! "A good start is half done". Thus, we spent plenty of time when developing the topic! We brainstormed to find an organization which represented Taiwan the most. Finally, we all agreed that "Cloud Gate Dance Theatre" is the best choice! In addition, this is a significant year for "Cloud Gate Dance Theatre". At the end of this year, Mr. Lin Hwai-min who has founded "Cloud Gate Dance Theatre" for 46 years will be retiring. Mr. Cheng Tsung-lung of "Cloud Gate 2" will succeed Mr. Lin Hwai-min as the artistic director.

In order to result in a more organized and efficient research, we adopted the following steps:

	We studied foundation background and types of dance of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.
	We visited Cloud Gate Theater and experience the course of dance with the senior dancer Ms. Chou Chang-ning.
	We read the books of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, "Wandering with Cloud Gate" and "The Making of Cloud Gate " and watched the documentary "Cloud Gate 30".
	We visited the personages related to Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, including the founder Mr. Lin Hwai-min, the dancers, photographer of Cloud Gate and the director of documentary in order to obtain the information which does not exist on internet and probe into Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.
	By briefing, picture books, posters and news reports, we promoted and shared the spirit of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre with the whole school.

In this CyberFair project, we not only learned and grew as a team, but also made efforts to construct a website for those who are interested in Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. By our efforts, we hope to promote the pride of Taiwan, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, to the world.

 

Our Computer and Internet Access:

Internet environment at school: There is a computer lab at school. Each computer connects to Internet through an optical fiber network, and externally links to Taipei City Education Network Center. We mostly use our lunch break or after school break to discuss, research and print out related information.

Internet environment at home: ADSL/Cable/Optical fiber internet

Data processing of the members: We sent the files by Gmail to share and reorganize research data. By USB, we could manage data in school or at home and we discussed the related content by video meetings of cell phones.

Contact and communication with other members: Via mobile phones, laptops, or personal computers.

Obstacles We had to Overcome:

In the period of studying Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, we encountered various obstacles. The most significant difficulty was "time". We are in the first year of senior high school and we are always busy. At night, we work until midnight for our homeworks. During the day, we must manage school works, clubs, extracurricular activities and competitions. We are also occupied on the weekends too. Thus, it was extremely difficult to arrange our time and we realized the importance of time management.

In addition, as to the interview, since we were not officially in society and we did not know how to approach the people we wanted to interview. Thus, we appreciated the parents who contacted the interviewees and arranged the time for our research. Nevertheless, the most significant obstacle was to cope with the conflict among the members. In a group, everyone can have different ideas and concepts and we must discuss with each other in order to obtain the best result. It is the ultimate goal of cooperation.

Afterthoughts

After studying well-known "Cloud Gate Dance Theatre", we recognized the cooperation of the dance troupe on the stage. Mr. Lin Hwai-min persists in his dream. The splendid performance is the result of the dancers' time and efforts. The impressive pieces are the creators' hard work and the essence of combination of modern elements and traditional culture. The amazing performance that made the audience fascinated was the force that promoted the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre!

In the study, we interviewed the people who grew with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. In the process, we approached the underlying world of Cloud Gate and the unfamiliar field of life. Fortunately, our team "Masters' Gathering" gained knowledge. For instance, we learned the foundation process of Cloud Gate of Mr. Lin Hwai-min and recognized the pride of Cloud Gate dancers and the acquisition of the documentary director of Cloud Gate. The most important is the "solidarity" of Cloud Gate!

We witnessed Cloud Gate dancers accomplishing art with their youth. After fulfilling the dream, they showed the solidarity which inspired us. What did we contribute to our dream? Their fragile bodies became powerful because of "solidarity" and we were thus impressed. After approaching Cloud Gate, we realized that we should make efforts for our future from now on to fulfill our goals.