As tropical storm Maria approached Taiwan Island, the students were dancing happily on the campus lawn. "My name is LIU Boyin. I am from the Department of Dance at the Taiwan University of Arts. It's very hot today, but I am so excited!" In one group, the girl introduced herself while dancing, and the others of the group surrounding her and swaying while covering ears, that was the action she designed for the team members. Everyone jumped out as the heroes and introduced himself or herself in a unique way, while other members cooperating with the "green leaf", showcasing a cheerful and harmonious atmosphere. 32 students from Beijing Normal University, Capital Normal University and Taiwan University of the Arts have gathered together for dancing. The ups and downs and romantic feelings during the process made them more closely united. Some students said: "I want to dance in the storm!"

　　The Convening and Gathering---2018 Cross-Strait Youth Dance Exchanging Performance, hosted by Chinese Dancers Association and undertaken by National Taiwan University of Arts, has gathered a 32-person delegation composed by directors from Chinese Dancers Association and Dance Art Center under China Federation of Literary and Art, and teachers and students from the Chinese mainland. In just a few days from July 7th to 14th, the teachers and students across the Straits lived together while making friends through dancing. From National Taiwan University of Arts, Tunghai University to Asia University, they experienced the humanities and customs of different universities in Taiwan via learning dancing skills together, exchanging ideas with innovative creations, resulting in three improvised works for outdoor exercises and joint performances to report their achievement.

　　Some 32 students, divided into three groups, were taught by different teachers for arranging and creation, gaining a lot in exchanges and interactions. They have learned different ways of using the body parts and ways of thinking, establishing a profound friendship. LIU Boyin, a student of the Department of Dance at the Taiwan University of Arts, has been learning dance since childhood, which has become an indispensable necessity for her life. During the exchanging activity, she found that mainland students danced with a high center of gravity, and their peers from Taiwan walked with a low gesture and would roll on the floor from time to time. "Seeing the different dancers' bodies will make you feel that 'that's really odd'. I could benefit different nutrients. The largest difficulty for dancers is to break through themselves and open up their horizons through communication so as to broaden their own space." LEI Jinpeng, a student from Capital Normal University, had never been trained on the outdoor lawn before, and practiced by himself in the dancing classroom for the most of the time. Now he created with other students, "I feel free and fresh, and I am very fond of communicating". A student CHANG Yukun from Beijing Normal University said that Taiwan teachers and students were very warm and friendly, just like being at home, especially teachers from Taiwan taught in an encouraging way with a relaxing atmosphere. They always said "Nice". The more encouragement I received, the better my body's potential was constantly being developed. This was the third time that CHANG Yukun participating in the cross-strait youth dance exchange performance. He has been in a constant contact with the Taiwan students he knew in the past. Whenever he went to perform, they would exchange ideas with each other through WeChat.

　　The reporting performance was on July 12th. The three groups of improvisation, with unique styles, made a stunning appearance at the Taiwan University of the Arts. One groups used tables for props, one was about duet dance and another group was a group dance emotion and stories. Presenting abundance and smoothness, the beauty and emotion of their dance flowed on the stage, and each group was an eye-catching. In the performance by the first group, the tables were sometimes towering, sometimes flowing like the sea on the stage, and sometimes the tables themselves were a small stage, all the students danced around the table and exuded a vigorous vitality. HUANG Huaide, a well-known young dance choreographer in Taiwan, was their instructor, who was invited to be the choreographer of "Cloud Gate 2". According to him, the improvisation was like a journey of life. Students walked through places across the mountains and seas. They could integrate their understanding of life and their own life experiences into the performance to release themselves without having to follow prescribed actions. "Putting different personalities together is life and the world." Do slow dance, like "playing" of Stephen Chow, is the dance concept that HUANG Huaide conveyed to the students. There was the "truth" in Chow's works, "you will seriously play that dance, the 'true' will present itself!" 

　　"They are just fantastic!" commented by SHAN Chong, Vicechairperson of Chinese Dancers Association after watching the performance. The three programs shared commonalities with their unique features. The starting point of each instructor was to let students open their own personality and release themselves. And each program included students from three different universities. "I couldn't tell which student is from Taiwan or the mainland. The two sides are fully integrated, which just confirms the theme of 'Convening and Gathering'." She pointed out that communication did not equal to separate performance, but of each other, but integration by the all. The exchanges between college students were also the best way to truly achieve a harmonious target. ZENG Zhaoxun, director of the Department of Dance at National Taiwan University, said that she was almost moved to tears in watching the performance. And she couldn't tell that the students were from three different universities. The dance on the stage required breath. You could see they were utterly like-minded on the stage, "The young students from both sides of the straits are holding hands together for duet dance. One is from Taiwan, the other from the mainland, it is very touching and meaningful, a true 'cross-strait, dancing for the future'."

　　As the improvisation was on the stage, the students from the three universities and the National Taiwan University of Sports also brought together the programs, such as Black Clouds , Jasmine , Mulan , Flowing Water and Landscape amongst others, attracting hundreds of Taiwan citizens with favorable comments. Opening the program brochure, the citizen LIU Yage said that he was in favor of a number of dances with traditional cultural values, which were performed by mainland students. According to the choreographers of the Landscape, ZHANG Sun and YE Bo, the program was inspired by the famous painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, The Great Landscape, endeavoring to combine classical dance with traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, and drawing on the rich use of colors, multi-point parallel perspective painting and charms amid stillness and movement with purpose of transforming an unmoved picture into a moving dance, letting the mountains and rivers live again.

　　A forum "Skills and Dances Present New Meaning" has attracted great masters from both sides during the event. SHAN Chong, ZHANG Ping, YE Bo, YU Daxue and ZENG Zhaoxun, LAI Xiufeng, WANG Guangsheng and others from Beijing Normal University, Capital Normal University, "Taiwan Chinese Dance Society", Taiwan University of the Arts and etc. have carried out in-depth discussion concerning current situation and development trend of dance creation, the status quo of cross-strait dance education, and the shaping of stage figures and others based upon specific dances, invariably pointing out that the culture of the two sides of the strait is from the same roots, the dance must draw nutrition from the traditional culture, and the movements must be free from skills, emotions from the bottom of the heart shall make the figures alive, conveying similarities about the concept of the cross-strait dances. ZHANG Ping, deputy-director of Dance Art Center under China Federation of Literary and Art, the crossStrait dances possess similar concepts and developments. And people from across the Straits should make joint efforts to find the specific fulcrum of Chinese modern dance in the modern world dance atmosphere and conduct exchanges into a deeper scale. "Because our bodies are genetically similar with homogeneous cultural genes", this event, based upon continuing the previous forum exchanges and practical creations, has added a new exchanging activity about dance image creation practice, inviting teams from the Communication University of China to shoot documentaries and short films so as to expand the combination of dance and video, and inject new vitality into the performance.

　　The Cross-Strait Youth Dance Exchanging Performance is the brand exchanging program of Chinese Dancers Association targeting Taiwan. With the theme of Cross-Strait, Dancing for the Future, the event organizes teachers and students from art universities across the straits to conduct exchanges, present the achievement of their learning and creation and build an indepth platform of communication for "one-on-one", "dance to dance" and "heart to heart" for young dancers on both sides of the strait. According to SHAN Chong, the event has entered into its ninth year since its past period from 2009 to 2018 with abundant fruits in its prime. The past nine-year has witnessed the footprints of cross-strait youth dance exchange performances in Beijing, Qingdao, Hohhot, Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hualien and etc. Every wonderful performance, bright and smiling face record the open minds of the young people from both sides of the strait with sincere hugs, playing a positive role in promoting young people from both sides of the strait, Hong Kong and Macao to dance for friends, exchange skills, enhance understanding and deepen friendship. The sharing and the joint discussion by circles of dance education from both sides of the strait advance the indepth development of cross-strait dance projects, especially the cooperation between the cross-strait dancing universities, strengthen the professional practice exchanges, expand the way of communication and its extension and provide a broader space and platform.