šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square, North of the Vancouver Art Gallery
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
About the Program
As experienced by three non-Spaniard flamenco dancers from different generations!
Hsueh Yu-Hsien, who gracefully embodies the spirit of Taiwanese and Spanish dance.Lian Ho, whose passion brought Taiwanese and Spanish cultures closer together.Rosario Ancer, whose Mexican heritage brings a refreshing flair to Spanish flamenco.
Join us for a conversation between these accomplished flamenco dancers, choreographers, and creators. They will take us through their personal journey of discovering, following, and ultimately dedicating their lives to the Art of Flamenco.
At the end of the conversation, a 5 min flamenco dance demo will follow. Don’t miss this fantastic cultural dialogue in the language of dance!
*This program is English only.
After enjoying a successful career in Spain, Rosario Ancer and her Vancouverite husband guitarist Victor Kolstee moved to Vancouver in 1989, where they co-funded the Flamenco Rosario Arts Society (Flamenco Rosario) and the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival. As an interpreter of Flamenco dance, Rosario Ancer is more interested in the continuing growth of the art form than in simply reiterating its past, exploring new possibilities by crossing boundaries both of history and culture to create original multidisciplinary works that have toured nationally and internationally.
Called by the press The Mother of Flamenco in Vancouver, she has been the receipting of the 2009 Isadora Award for Excellence in Choreography for her work Mis Hermanas, she was honoured with the 2012 Mayor’s Arts Award in Dance for enriching the cultural life of Vancouverites and with the 2016 Lola Award, which acknowledges a body of outstanding work and Rosario’s risk-taking artistic spirit. She was also the winner of the 2019 ‘Best Artist’ Red Global MX, and she was inducted in the Dance Collection Danse 2020 Hall of Fame.
Through dance training, dance company and festival programs, Rosario and Victor created a knowledgeable audience for flamenco. A new generation of flamenco artists flourishes on their platform. Flamenco Rosario is a bridge that connects local, national, and international flamenco communities.
Hsueh Yu-Hsien started learning dance from her mother when she was three. At the age of twelve, she was the first trainee of Chinese descent to enter the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Mariemma to study Spanish classical dance. Yu-Hsien once represented the school in a solo dance competition and reached the finals, receiving the affirmation and recognition of local Spanish dancers. In 2014, she graduated from the Dept. of Spanish Classical Dance as the top student.
In 2016, Yu-Hsien chose to return to her hometown to share with children in Taiwan what she’d learned and cultivated in Spain. Yu-Hsien became Genio Dance’s director in 2018, and she started to serve as a dance teacher in Kaohsiung Municipal Taoyuan Junior High School and the artist-in-residence in Nan’ao Wuta elementary school. From dancing in the city to dancing in the mountains, Yu-Hsien brought art resources and arts education to rural villages, providing the opportunity to learn professional dance. In addition, Yu-Hsien established a dancer training class in Genio Dance, drawing from the professional lessons of her alma mater to teach Taiwanese children, building blueprints of aspiration for Taiwanese young dancers.
On the radiant stage, you can see love in its purest and warmest form.
Lian Ho is one of the few dancers in Taiwan who can dance with the spirit of flamenco. She is a master of incorporating flamenco elements into contemporary dance choreography. Lian Ho’s works have a strong and rich emotional projection of life. Her early works always portrays women, love, beauty, and ugliness in a profound way, bringing infinite longing and heartwarming emotions to the audience.
Having walked through the turbulent winds of time, Lian Ho dances with her life and spreads love with her dance. In recent years, her works have been centered around the land of Taiwan, integrating into the dance the cry of the valley, the dignity of culture, the concept of love and unloved, the feeling of becoming more complete after having been broken and more cherished due to loss.
Some people say that watching Lian Ho’s works is like looking through the scenery of life. It brings back memories, picks up the broken pieces, and reorganizes them into a whole!
Since Typhoon Morakot in 2009, she and her dance troupe Genio Dance began travelling from the mountain to the sea, through remote areas and devastated places. They visited the Indigenous tribes and rural villages, and through dancing, helped to bring courage and healing from the trauma of the natural disasters, encouraging children to chase their dreams. In addition to bringing performance art into these villages, Lian Ho also launched the Taiwan Veteran’s House Touring Show Project. Every year they dance through sixteen veterans’ houses in Taiwan, paying respect to the former soldiers by dancing, embracing them with warmness and care.
From the Curating Team
2024 Hope Talks explore how people absorb, transform, and recreate culture between the migration process. Speak of the past in order to move forward!
About the Program
As experienced by three non-Spaniard flamenco dancers from different generations!
Hsueh Yu-Hsien, who gracefully embodies the spirit of Taiwanese and Spanish dance.Lian Ho, whose passion brought Taiwanese and Spanish cultures closer together.Rosario Ancer, whose Mexican heritage brings a refreshing flair to Spanish flamenco.
Join us for a conversation between these accomplished flamenco dancers, choreographers, and creators. They will take us through their personal journey of discovering, following, and ultimately dedicating their lives to the Art of Flamenco.
At the end of the conversation, a 5 min flamenco dance demo will follow. Don’t miss this fantastic cultural dialogue in the language of dance!
*This program is English only.
After enjoying a successful career in Spain, Rosario Ancer and her Vancouverite husband guitarist Victor Kolstee moved to Vancouver in 1989, where they co-funded the Flamenco Rosario Arts Society (Flamenco Rosario) and the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival. As an interpreter of Flamenco dance, Rosario Ancer is more interested in the continuing growth of the art form than in simply reiterating its past, exploring new possibilities by crossing boundaries both of history and culture to create original multidisciplinary works that have toured nationally and internationally.
Called by the press The Mother of Flamenco in Vancouver, she has been the receipting of the 2009 Isadora Award for Excellence in Choreography for her work Mis Hermanas, she was honoured with the 2012 Mayor’s Arts Award in Dance for enriching the cultural life of Vancouverites and with the 2016 Lola Award, which acknowledges a body of outstanding work and Rosario’s risk-taking artistic spirit. She was also the winner of the 2019 ‘Best Artist’ Red Global MX, and she was inducted in the Dance Collection Danse 2020 Hall of Fame.
Through dance training, dance company and festival programs, Rosario and Victor created a knowledgeable audience for flamenco. A new generation of flamenco artists flourishes on their platform. Flamenco Rosario is a bridge that connects local, national, and international flamenco communities.
Hsueh Yu-Hsien started learning dance from her mother when she was three. At the age of twelve, she was the first trainee of Chinese descent to enter the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Mariemma to study Spanish classical dance. Yu-Hsien once represented the school in a solo dance competition and reached the finals, receiving the affirmation and recognition of local Spanish dancers. In 2014, she graduated from the Dept. of Spanish Classical Dance as the top student.
In 2016, Yu-Hsien chose to return to her hometown to share with children in Taiwan what she’d learned and cultivated in Spain. Yu-Hsien became Genio Dance’s director in 2018, and she started to serve as a dance teacher in Kaohsiung Municipal Taoyuan Junior High School and the artist-in-residence in Nan’ao Wuta elementary school. From dancing in the city to dancing in the mountains, Yu-Hsien brought art resources and arts education to rural villages, providing the opportunity to learn professional dance. In addition, Yu-Hsien established a dancer training class in Genio Dance, drawing from the professional lessons of her alma mater to teach Taiwanese children, building blueprints of aspiration for Taiwanese young dancers.
On the radiant stage, you can see love in its purest and warmest form.
Lian Ho is one of the few dancers in Taiwan who can dance with the spirit of flamenco. She is a master of incorporating flamenco elements into contemporary dance choreography. Lian Ho’s works have a strong and rich emotional projection of life. Her early works always portrays women, love, beauty, and ugliness in a profound way, bringing infinite longing and heartwarming emotions to the audience.
Having walked through the turbulent winds of time, Lian Ho dances with her life and spreads love with her dance. In recent years, her works have been centered around the land of Taiwan, integrating into the dance the cry of the valley, the dignity of culture, the concept of love and unloved, the feeling of becoming more complete after having been broken and more cherished due to loss.
Some people say that watching Lian Ho’s works is like looking through the scenery of life. It brings back memories, picks up the broken pieces, and reorganizes them into a whole!
Since Typhoon Morakot in 2009, she and her dance troupe Genio Dance began travelling from the mountain to the sea, through remote areas and devastated places. They visited the Indigenous tribes and rural villages, and through dancing, helped to bring courage and healing from the trauma of the natural disasters, encouraging children to chase their dreams. In addition to bringing performance art into these villages, Lian Ho also launched the Taiwan Veteran’s House Touring Show Project. Every year they dance through sixteen veterans’ houses in Taiwan, paying respect to the former soldiers by dancing, embracing them with warmness and care.
From the Curating Team
2024 Hope Talks explore how people absorb, transform, and recreate culture between the migration process. Speak of the past in order to move forward!
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TAIWANfest Vancouver is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation). We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered here, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples of this land while we engage in meaningful conversations of culture and reconciliation.