Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Institute

Tsai Jui-yueh can be called a pioneer of modern dance in Taiwan, and she spared no effort in promoting it. Born in Tainan in 1921, she went to Japan at 16 to study under Ishii Baku, then known as the father of modern dance, which laid the foundation of her dancing. After returning home, she devoted herself entirely to dance and brought the ideas of modern dance to Taiwan. She created more than 500 modern dance works in Taiwan, such as 'Song of India' and 'We Love Our Taiwan', drawing on ballet, ethnic dance and Taiwanese folk dance, and she is called the mother of modern dance in Taiwan. The institute is a historic building, originally housing for civil servants in the Japanese colonial period, when housing of various grades was built in Taipei, mostly Japanese-style wooden houses. In 1920 dozens of semi-detached wooden houses were built on Zhongshan North Road, and the institute's building is one of them; its layout shows it was housing for a junior-grade Japanese official. In 1953 it became the home of Tsai Jui-yueh and her studio for choreography, creation and rehearsal, and later developed into a dance school. It was once damaged by fire. In 1999 heritage scholars and experts agreed that this was where modern dance took root in Taiwan and were determined to rebuild it, which saved it from developers and extended the life of the historic site.

Translated by DealTaipei from Taiwan's national tourism database. Sources are on the terms page.