“Give yourself a chance to dig in what you feel passion”
Meng-Ke Wu is a wonderful dancer who has been dancing in NDT1 and 2 for 10 years.
- You had been training at Taipei National University of Arts when you are young, how did education in Taiwan influence your dance style now? What do you think about the relationship between culture and dance?
“In Taiwan, especially at my university, we have to learn everything. We learn Ballet, contemporary, Chinese folk dance, Kung Fu, and Taichi. Because of the diverse dance styles through education, I am not restricted by styles or types of movements. It does give me the possibility to accept the moves easily. Also, in NDT, we receive a lot of choreography and different kind of styles, so it gives me great potential for learning diversity. However, because I did not learn one specific genre deeply at school, sometimes, I feel like I am in one layer. Sometimes, I wish I can take more time with the deep inside and details. I feel like the culture not only affects dance but also effects everything. I cannot say because the culture affected me from very different angles. When you dance, it is just you who are created by your own background, education, experiences. Therefore, what every dancer offer on stage is different from the culture that influences everything.”
-Why did you decide to move to Europe? Was there anything about the European dance world makes you feel fascinated?
“Yes, very much, NDT. At my university, we had a dance history class and my teacher saw us one of NDT dance videos, and we all were, “Wow.” The training that I did in my school was more about typical Ballet and modern techniques. Therefore, I was fascinated by the way they moved. I was in Tanztheater München for a year, but in my mind, I kept having thoughts about NDT. So, I auditioned for NDT2, I could join the company.”
- How is your experience of being in NDT so far?
“Definitely, you learned a lot. But, sometimes, you are destroyed by tough schedules and injuries. Something that I earn the most is that I could meet a lot of different people like great choreographers and dancers. Also, I learned a lot of theatrical work which really helped me to open my eyes.”
-How do the diverse works that NDT provides affect your dance?
“I feel like as a dancer, I become more open and could accept non-perfect me. At the beginning of my career, I cared so much. I gave myself so much pressure with being perfect. But, I realized that the mistake is the best moment because I learn from that. I learned how to deal with the mistake which is precious. And also I learn how to appreciate others. I love to watch my colleagues dance because they have something that I could have never achieved. Also, I learned from them. Sometimes, we need to bring a story, text with theatrical ways, it is not all about dance. So, I need to challenge myself, and by the challenges that I have faced in NDT, I can be always curious in order to develop myself. Because it is so easy that everyone can dance beautifully, and if you don’t make yourself curious about what you are doing, it would be boring, dancing like a machine. And that is what I really appreciate while being in NDT.”
-What do you need to have in order to be a good dancer?
“There are a lot of dancers in the world. So, you need to have basic techniques which are the basis. But, in order to be a great performer, I think it is a different story. You not only need to have great techniques which can only make you a dance machine but also need to have a lot of imagination, open-mindedness, the ability to accept many possibilities, and experiences of life.”
-How do you think about improvisation? What gives you inspiration?
“Improvisation is very important and it has a lot of different kinds of ways and styles. NDT dancers do a lot of Gaga when we work with Ohad Naharin. And, there are some creations that we need improvisation. Besides that, when I teach improvisation, it is different, but for myself, I like to put music first. In order to get into it, music could help me to be in the mode.”
-What do you focus on when you teach improvisation to others?
“First, I ask them to open all their senses like what they see, hear, smell, touch, all the parts of the body. I think it is important to give a body time to open mind and senses in order to make them feel okay to create an environment and make mistakes because there is no right and wrong in the class. Also, I like to restrict the body to be able to give more freedom to our bodies. Because when there is too much freedom, it is easy to get lost. By this exercise, you can be your own boss. And, besides that, I do focus on isolation, different kinds of qualities, etc.”
-For general teaching, what do you most concentrate on? What message do you want to transmit to others?
“It is very important that we need to be open-minded based on what you learned, but at the same time, you should absorb others and combine these when you need it. As a teacher, I offer tools to students and they utilize the tools when they need them.”
-How did you start “Body Detour”? And why did you decide to do this?
“The year that I taught NDT Summer Intensive, I also taught high school students in Taiwan. And I realized that there is a huge difference in reactions between these two groups. In NDT, for sure, people were picked from the audition from all around the world, they came here to learn with full of eager. But, when I taught students in Taiwan, I felt that they are afraid. They were afraid to think, answer, and react so I asked myself why because I am also from the school. So I realized that the only thing that I can do is creating a platform in the summer so people are interested in dance, theater, and literature to be able to have an untypical academic platform. Everyone can take it. As long as you are familiar with dance, you can join. Some people are from hip-pop, acting, and some just dance for a hobby. And I found a great exchange because dancers can dance so non-dancer learn from them, on the other side, dancers learn from actors how to act so we exchange each other’s talent and profession. This year will be the fifth year and it is such a great atmosphere. It is all about openness. Based on my experience, I met a lot of great people in Europe, and I would love to introduce them to Taiwan, People bring openness. I don’t believe that I can change students’ minds immediately and I don’t even change it, but I just want to share my experience of being open in Europe. so this is why I created Body Detour.”
-How important to have great techniques as a dancer?
“It depends on what kinds of dancers you want to become. And it depends on your goal. If you love to be a classical or neoclassical dancer, you do need to have classical techniques. But, in NDT, the technique that we talk about is quite different. We are not talking about how many turns you can do or how high you can raise your leg. In our class, we talk a lot of opposition If you want to go higher, you need to go lower first. If you want to go right, you need to go left. Also, we talk about music quality and breathing, and it is quite different than what we call, real classical ballet.”
-When you lose motivation, how do you react to recover it?
“Because I was in a professional company, I did not have time to lose motivation, to be honest. For 10 years, I was rolling. And recently, I learned how to move slow by staying at home. When you lose motivation, you just lose it, it is fine. Accept it. What I like about dance is that it make me focus 100%. I am not thinking about something else while dancing. It is one of the only things that I could spend a lot of energies and thoughts. It is my passion. If you lose motivation, try something else, then you will realize what you are really passionate about.”
-How can you define dance? What is a dance for you?
“Dance is one of my passion. As I say before, I am 100% into it. There are so many things going on in my life. But due to dance, I learn even more about myself in many different ways, and dance is one of the things that I could have more curiosity in my life because, through that, it opened me in different perspectives. And I feel more need in life which is the desire for learning more.”
- Describe yourself in three words
“Creature, sensitive, and optimistic”
- Do you have any advice for young dancers
“I think there is a lot of advice that people told them. Be open-minded, be curious as I mentioned before. I just want to say give yourself time and a chance to dig in what you like and what you feel the passion. Because of social media which is going so fast, Like, no like… you have so much information in your life so maybe you could give up easily if it is not working. But, it is important for us to give us some time to see if it is really for me or not.”
Thank you so much for this opportunity, Meng-ke, It was such an honor for us!
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