《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taiwanese dance team wins medals at IDO competition

By Su Fu-nan and William Hetherington / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Taiwanese team at the IDO World Oriental and Folk Dance Cups in Chuncheon, South Korea, have brought home five medals, including three gold.

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The four-woman team from the Charm Belly Dance （創舞極致） studio in Kaohsiung said they cried when they when they were able to wave Taiwan’s flag at the medal ceremony and heard the National Flag Anthem （中華民國國旗歌） played.

“We were informed they did not have our anthem. One of our dancers, Chan Pi-yun （詹碧雲）, then ran to grab a CD she had brought with her and handed it to the sound engineer,” troupe director Kuo Ying-ling （郭盈伶） said.

The troupe had learned from their experience at the 2016 IDO competition in South Korea, when there was a minute’s silence when team members took to the rostrum, because the organizers did not have the flag anthem, which left the dancers feeling sad, Kuo said.

This year’s competition on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25 featured teams from 10 nations, including Russia, Ukraine and Denmark, and was Asia’s most challenging dance competition this year, Chan said.

After winning best-of-four and best-of-two elimination rounds, six dancers then competed in the final round in each event, Chan said.

The Taiwanese team — Chan, Chuang Chia-chieh （莊嘉杰）, Wang Yu-chien （王育蒨） and Hsieh Yu-hsuan （謝宥萱） — won three golds, one silver and one bronze.

The team took the gold in the Belly Dance/Oriental adult group event, while Chuang, who competed in the juniors category, won gold medals in the oriental dance and folk dance events.

Chan won a silver medal in the folk-dance solo female event, and Hsieh won the bronze in the oriental-dance solo female event.

The dancers said they were elated not just for winning the medals, but because they heard the flag anthem on the rostrum.

“When we handed the CD over, the South Korean sound engineer did not seem to think much about it. He just hurriedly shoved the CD into the player and hit play,” Kuo said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES