「關於星期日的秘密基地」台北藝術大學 舞者 TAN SEN CAI

When I first heard of Hsing-Ho Chen(陳星合) from a good friend and upon knowing that he was once a performer at Cirque Du Soleil, I got curious and researched to find out more about him. Since then I watched many of his videos on YouTube, including the one from TEDxTaipei 2013 where he gave a motivational talk and shared his journey on how he prepared himself to get into his dream company “Cirque Du Soleil” and I was totally inspired. After the good friend of mine told me that he gives classes every weekend at a studio nearby Ximending Station, I contacted him on Facebook immediately to ask if I could attend his classes. He responded to me promptly and added me to the Facebook group called ＃星期日的秘密基地 where I am able to receive information about his classes, as well as to look at his class videos on Facebook page. I am someone who believes in achieving things in a slow and steady manner without injuring my own body. When I was there for the first time and knowing I am about to learn stunts or flips in the class, I was prepared to protect myself. Yet I wanted to learn and absorb as much as I can and apply those information, putting them into action. I also do not want to rush the process of achieving fanciful stunts and flips in just a short period of time so I went to the class with the mindset of learning the basics, building a stronger foundation and understanding my body better as a performer. The class was conducted in a very systematic and efficient way in the following manner: 1. Warm-up 2. Basic Training (Hopping, skipping, jumping and clawing) 3. Advance Technique-Training (Handstand, cartwheel and front tuck) 4. Cool down. Warming up the body is a very crucial thing we do as a performer and Hsing-Ho Chen ensured that this aspect was well taken care of. What impressed me was how the above mentioned was clearly stated on the Facebook page prior to the class and he followed very closely to the lesson plan. Hsing-Ho Chen is a very encouraging educator, he would often give words of comfort, he encourages failure and learning from those failures. The class was a beginner class and all students had varying standards. However, he would cater to individual needs and pushes according to individual's capabilities. This beginner class is definitely for everyone who wants to keep fit, be healthy and confident with their body. The studio has many facilities and not only do the classes help individuals build up their confidence to learn the stuns, the classes also teaches one how to prevent and protect oneself from sustaining injuries. My biggest take away for the class was that Hsing-Ho Chen would constantly trigger some thoughts in his students and one of it was that he wants us to never let our training in dance take away our intuition to react, to move and to think. Even though achieving perfection is good when you are able to do it but in the process of learning to achieve stuns such as front tuck or aerial, we must always keep an open mind and not be restricted by the proper way of doing it. Through repetition, accumulation of experiences and time, Hsing-Ho Chen believes that everyone could achieve somewhere that they want to be. Video references: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaNKsXIcC7U&t=681s. http://youtu.be/GDQFKAEo4u4