2020 HUG National Dance Competition Interview with FJUDC Members
By Josephine Wu
On December 5th, 2020, the Fu Jen University Dance Club participated in the annual HUG National Dance Competition, winning over the audiences and placing 8th on the list. The HUG National Dance Competition is Taiwan’s biggest college student dance competition, drawing hundreds of audiences from all over the country every year, as well as participating dance crews from universities all over Taiwan. This year, the event is hosted at YangMing University. After months of practice and preparation, the FJU Dance Club takes the stage once again and performs their choreographed number, “Jailbreak.”
The concept of “Jailbreak” was agreed upon in unison by the participating members when preparation first began. We interviewed Melody Zhao, the main choreographer of this year’s dance piece, on the basic storyline of the dance and the ideas they were trying to express to the audience. “What we presented was the story about a group of prisoners who worked together to escape from jail, and ultimately embraces the freedom of the outside world,” says Melody, “in the process of figuring out how to break free from imprisonment, and by interacting with one another to reach a goal, the prisoners each make new discoveries about themselves. Parts of their unique personalities (charisma, nerve, sexiness, boldness) that were suppressed in jail were let wild, allowing them to be who they truly are.” The story can be interpreted as an analogy to our own lives. Life as college students may be hard; many of us feel trapped inside our own skin or suffer anxiety due to uncertainty of the future, but with each new person we meet, the important relationships we build, we will be able to power through any obstacle. “Jailbreak” is a dance that radiates positivity and hope for the future.
The concept of “Jailbreak” was agreed upon in unison by the participating members when preparation first began. We interviewed Melody Zhao, the main choreographer of this year’s dance piece, on the basic storyline of the dance and the ideas they were trying to express to the audience. “What we presented was the story about a group of prisoners who worked together to escape from jail, and ultimately embraces the freedom of the outside world,” says Melody, “in the process of figuring out how to break free from imprisonment, and by interacting with one another to reach a goal, the prisoners each make new discoveries about themselves. Parts of their unique personalities (charisma, nerve, sexiness, boldness) that were suppressed in jail were let wild, allowing them to be who they truly are.” The story can be interpreted as an analogy to our own lives. Life as college students may be hard; many of us feel trapped inside our own skin or suffer anxiety due to uncertainty of the future, but with each new person we meet, the important relationships we build, we will be able to power through any obstacle. “Jailbreak” is a dance that radiates positivity and hope for the future.
All members of FJUDC performing on stage, photograph by Mike Wang
The idea of unity is also demonstrated through this year’s member selection. In previous years, only sophomores were allowed to take part in the competition. However, “Jailbreak” consists of students from the freshman class all the way to the seniors. “This is the first time we tried merging students from different grade levels to participate in the same dance number.” Explained interviewee Jennifer Hsieh, “we wanted to create a new legacy and present the FJU dance club as a family, instead of classifying the members based on their graduating class.” This change undoubtedly yielded good results. “Not only were we able to recruit a larger number of members, which provided the choreographers the flexibility to create more complex images, but the overall talent of the team also had a significant improvement.”
FJUDC members (from left to right) Ziyun Li, Zhinan Liu, Jiaqi Shen, Serafina Wu, Hongxin Li, Jennifer Hsieh, May Shen, Yihua Cai, photograph by Mike Wang