Artistic Director: Ming-Shen Ku
An active dance teacher, choreographer and dancer, Ms. Ku received her B.A. degree in dance from the Chinese Culture University and her M.F.A. degree from the University of Illinois. Ms. Ku returned to Taiwan in 1987 to teach, perform, and choreograph new works.

Ms. Ku’s works are influenced by many Western and Eastern dance styles, a merging development from her diverse backgrounds. In 1989, her work "Bamboo Grove" was notated into Laban Notation. Ms. Ku has also been invited as a guest artist to perform and to teach in many universities and dance companies around the world.

In 1991-1992, Ms. Ku received a grant from the National Endowment of the Culture and Arts to advance her study in the United States. She became deeply involved in Contact Improvisation and introduced it to Taiwan. Since then, Ms. Ku has developed her own movement emphasis in teaching modern dance and improvisation.

As an active choreographer in Taiwan, she collaborated with many dance companies and events in Taiwan. Her solo performance has been invited to tour to the US, Europe, Australia, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. Latest tour was to Biennale de danse du Val-de-Marne, France in 2002.

She founded her dance company " Ku & Dancers" in 1993 to present new works and promote the concept of improvisation. As the only professional dance company that has devoted itself in improvisation works, "Ku & Dancers" has presented several structured improvisation projects touring Taiwan in the past few years. Since 2000, the company organized and produced Taiwan Dance Umbrella, in which Ms. Ku was the producer, to provide opportunities for young and innovated choreographers to have their works put on stage.

In 2001, Ms. Ku collaborated with Image in Motion Theatre Company to put on stage a dance performance combining with computer-animated images, “Not a Love Story”. It was a first of its kind in Taiwan. Choreographer Ku starts the exploration of dance and technology collaborated with a Hollywood computer animation specialist Yau Chen. They continued the exploration with a recent project "@Dream" performed in 2003 in Taipei and Beijing.