Liou Shaw-Lu
Founder and Artistic Director

Liou Shaw-Lu, founder and artistic director of Taipei Dance Circle, was first trained in gymnastics and swimming before entering the world of dance in the early 1970s. He studied modern dance with Taiwan's most prestigious choreographers, Liu Feng-Shueh and Lin Hwai-Min, before being a founding member of the renowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatre for 12 years. Liou later earned a MFA degree in Dance from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He also studied under such American choreographers as Anna Halprin, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis.

With over 20 productions to date, Liou Shaw-Lu has been gaining critical and public recognition around the world. In 1995, the Free China Journal rated him as "one of Taiwan's most innovative choreographers of modern dance." Dance Over the Universe" was hailed by a Taiwan critic as "a new climax in Taiwan's modern dance" while his signature work, the baby oil dance Olympics, has achieved international distinction. In 1997, Olympics received the "Award for Innovation in the Performing Arts" from Germany's Ludwig Foundation.

Most recently, Liou was honored with the second annual Literary and Arts Award by Taiwan's National Culture and Arts Foundation. The awards are given each year to people who have made significant contributions to the development towards arts in Taiwan.

• Meandering Over the Mountain (2005)
• Waterside (2005)
• 20th Anniversary Retrospective of the Taipei Dance Circle (2004)
• Body Water (2004)
• Pingban, or Moderato (2003)
• Flow (2002)
• Sight and sound excercise two (2002)
• Divine Comedy 2001 (2001)
• Sight and sound excercise one (2001)
• Faults (2000)
• Black Tide (1999)
• Ode to a Paramecium (1998)
• Oil Painting (1997)
• Framework (1996)
• Variegate (1995)
• Olympics (1994)
• Dance Over the Universe (1993)