Liberty Square

Liberty Square is the expansive Taipei plaza where Ever gathers the girls in her dance group to practice. Its monumental civic architecture gives their rehearsal a public stage, while the National Theater’s glass doors turn the dancers’ reflections into part of the scene; there, an old song shared by Mei-Hwa opens the choreography and the group’s work grows into spontaneous movement and laughter.

Setting and Architecture

The plaza is framed by a gate of five white arches accented with blue pagoda roofs. Beyond it, a broad avenue lined with sculpted trees leads toward the white temple and blue pagoda roof of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. The National Theater and National Concert Hall face one another across the avenue, their raised platforms reached by wide stone steps. Red columns support their two-tiered orange roofs, whose swallowtail corners display dragons, phoenixes, and other mythological creatures.

The Theater as Rehearsal Space

A breeze passes through the humid air as Ever leads the girls up the National Theater’s steps to its deck. The glass doors reflect them like ballet-studio mirrors, setting their moving images against posters advertising a Beijing opera and a Juilliard string quartet. Ever treats the location as an ideal place to practice, comparing it to Carnegie Hall and the National Theatre in Washington, D.C.

The plaza also holds personal associations for the group. Lena recalls learning to ride her bicycle there, and watches a little boy pedaling beneath his parents’ attentive gaze. Her memory makes the grand performance venue a place of ordinary childhood experience as well as public culture.

Dance, Memory, and Gathering

The rehearsal begins with “Lán Huā Cǎo,” the old song Mei-Hwa had shared with Ever. Ever values the melody’s simplicity as an opening for the dance. The girls spread across the theater platform, their reflections moving in the glass behind them. As the music shifts, Ever adjusts the choreography to balance long ribbons, rosewood fans, and jazz dancers who use no props.

When the music reaches a song that has not yet been choreographed, the planned practice gives way to spontaneous free dancing. The group laughs as much as it rehearses, then, soaked with sweat, settles on the steps to drink from their bottles. Ever praises Lena’s fluid dancing, and the other girls agree. She is surprised and grateful that Lena joined: before the group formed, Ever had never seen her dance; Lena did not go clubbing and was deeply involved in the weekly Bible study she had started on the fifth floor. At Liberty Square, an imposing civic setting becomes a shared space for movement, memory, and an emerging group bond.