The sculpture “Little 14-year-old Dancer” is now being exhibited along with 73 other works of the renowned Impressionist Degas’ at Asia University (AU) for the opening anniversary of Asia Museum of Modern Art. The Student Affairs Office of AU invited seven little dancers to have a classical ballet performance at the lobby and showrooms of the Museum on Dec. 14. They danced every piece of music so beautifully, like having a dialogue with the sculpture “Little 14-year-old Dancer,” and won a round of applause. It was also through the performance that the audience was guided to appreciate Degas’ works from the aesthetics view.

    The seven little dancers were from the Legato Ballet led by Teacher Mei-Ying Lin. Starting at the lobby of the Museum on the morning of Dec. 14, they performed three pieces of classical ballet in different styles with elegance and excellent skills. The host Shu-Chen Lo, Chief of the Service Learning Section at AU, also arranged the instructor Mei-Ying Lin to have an interpretation for the audience to understand more about the aesthetics of classical ballet.

  So many people came to the performance that an encore was added in the showroom of the sculpture “Little 14-year-old Dancer” at 10:40 in the morning. In the following scheduled performances at 12:00 and 14:00, the seven little dancers of the Legato Ballet showed their professional dedication and confidence through delicate dance moves. When they were doing an improvisation as talking to the sculpture, the audience applauded for their amazing looks and positions.

  Section Chief Shu-Chen Lo said that it was arranged on purpose to hold the performance in the showroom of the sculpture “Little 14-year-old Dancer” in order to put the audience in the real scene to experience the classical ballet, appreciate the beauty of the sculpture, and get more knowledge of ballet sculptures. She added that it was a series of performances beginning on Dec. 14, and that visitors were more than welcome to join the live shows coming up on Dec. 28, Jan. 11 as well as Jan. 25.

  “It was great and worth visiting,” said Zhong-Cheng Lu, the director of a chorus from Kaohsiung. “It was rare to see a ballet performance in an exhibition of sculptures, and I took a lot of great photos of the professional performance of the little pretty dancers.”

  Activities such as “Cloud Gate Body Stretch vs Parent-Child Interaction” in October and “Horse Riding and Sketching” in November were held as well by the Student Affairs Office at AU to go along with the Degas’ exhibition. Shao-Liang Chang, Dean of the Student Affairs Office of AU, said that through the ballet performance on Dec. 14, AU hoped the visitors could appreciate the sculpture works by Degas in a pleasant mood and feel the artistic atmosphere in the grand event.