In 2016, YANG once again got her inspiration from hip-hop dance. Whilst looking for a rehearsal space for her newly founded company (which was lacking resources) she decided to rehearse under the Huashan Xinsheng Overpass, a public playground that is reserved mainly for basketball and skateboarding. Right in the city center and next to the cultural space Huashan 1914 Creative Park, the playground is convenient, easily reachable by public transport and protected from the rain and wind. With its lighting equipment, it soon became one of the most popular venues for basketball and extreme sports in Taipei City, and lots of people go there to exercise after work. It’s a space full of graffiti and a few pairs of old shoes hang from the ceiling. When YANG and her partners started to rehearse “modern dance” in that space, it triggered the curiosity of people and passengers of the playground and people began to ask to join them. She and her partners made a decision to open the warm-up section of their rehearsal to the public, which eventually turned into the Monday School.

Starting with a group of 20 people, the Monday School is now an indispensable part of the cultural scenery in the city. Every Monday evening, more than 100 people from different corners of the great Taipei area, people of diverse backgrounds, status and ethnicity assemble under the Overpass to join this school on the street. Here they dance, learn, exchange and share their passion for dance and for the arts. It is a space without restrictions. There is no registration, no qualifications are needed, no fees required and all kinds of dance are welcome.

It’s a space to meet people in the same situation as you, who have a dream or need the courage to rise to a challenge. They’re possibly totally different from you, but are willing to try out new possibilities together. YANG says, “By bringing dance out of the theatre and into public spaces, it becomes, somehow, friendlier. Monday School is gradually becoming part of the urban landscape to which people make themselves accustomed. That’s how the arts integrate into people’s life.”

CHEN Yun-Cheng is a service designer, and still remembers his very first Monday School. He said, “YANG and her partners didn’t care whether I knew how to dance or not. With my school education, I was always taught to behave with good manners and not to act in an unruly way. I never imagined that one day, my body could develop a relationship with music as well as with other people. I started to see lots of possibilities…what is essential here is to see how you build the relationship with others…in a space like Monday School, everything is organic. I feel so touched by the warm power between us, the power that brings us forward steadily. I hope this landscape can be kept in Taipei.” For Monday School’s sustainability, since 2018 CHEN has been helping the LPCP to initiate the long-term subscription of a crowdfunding project, which is still the first of its kind in the performing arts history in Taiwan.

Extending out from Monday School, Battle Jam was originally conceived as a platform on which people who participated in Monday School could exchange and perform their new knowledge and skills. Though inspired from the form of the battle in hip-hop culture, YANG had a clear idea that this platform should not be designed for any specific dance community. Combining the idea of the battle from hip-hop and the improvisation from open jams, Battle Jam welcomes people of all levels and disciplines who want to be on stage. It’s an occasion for people to share what they are fond of and create a live theatrical experience together that goes beyond dance. The concept was supported by the National Theatre & Concert Hall (NTCH) in Taiwan whose programs are rarely related to hip-hop; they always have lots of people, some of them are also participants of Monday School, who practice hip-hop dance outside their building. Battle Jam took place for the first time in 2019 in the lobby of the National Theatre and with this event, YANG and her partners invited those people who were dancing outside to join the battle inside the theatre and to enjoy the performances.

For many of them, it was their first theatrical experience. The reason that they choose to dance outside the NTCH is because they wanted to use the glazed doors around the building as a mirror. However, they might never go inside to see a performance or think of having the chance to dance on the other side of the glazed doors. One of the participants of Battle Jam, SHIH Han-Yu, was moved and said, “Today, for us, or even for all hip-hop dance participants, is a great honour. We truly performed in the National Theatre.”

HUANG Yu-Ming, who participated both in Monday School and Battle Jam, shared his journey with these two events, “Breaking is my first dance style, but during a certain period, I quite disliked battling. Because of dancing, I gradually became confident and even liked myself. I didn’t see the logic of fighting for a victory to make oneself valuable….I have joined some theatrical works over the past few years, though my dance experience started on the street. As a result, I was always looking for the beauty from both sides. Monday School lets me see the possibilities and Battle Jam changes my mind. What I saw on the ground was not a mere competition, but an exchange and even more so, a sharing that’s about music and life.”

Both Monday School and Battle Jam are ongoing projects and the company have started to see some positive results. People have begun to create their own work, some now frequent the theatre and others have put themselves in touch with a new artistic discipline. YANG sees the two projects as a vehicle through which people could be led to another stage, and for her, that’s the most meaningful aspect of the projects.

Artistic creation in Taiwan is mostly conducted by the institutional or academic system; people who are not in the system and who have a desire to create their own work are not easily seen and find it difficult to get the resources. Since 2020 she and her partners have been setting up plans to provide more practical information and support for people outside these systems. Firstly by giving them some guidance, either in work appreciation or in the regular practice and helping those promising creators to shape ideas. YANG and her partners then select from these ideas, award a grant, and share their advice from a professional perspective. What they actually provide throughout the process, is a sense of company. Monday School and Battle Jam are an incubator of artistic talents who exist outside of the system.

Being an artist who receives resources from the national government, YANG often questions her relationship with society and recognises it’s a shame if artistic creation only occurs in the theatre or institutions. When she brings the dance to public spaces, she feels that she is creating a work with all participants and emphasises, “This process of collective-creation through participation is already a form of creation.” YANG brings forward a space that can influence the perception of different people, and it’s important for her to keep her artistic practice on the street, so those established ideas about what and where dance is produced can be shifted.