Building a future
The Lan Yang Youth Catholic Center consists of two connected concrete buildings housing the center, the dance companies, and the kindergarten on roughly six hectares along Luodong’s Beicheng Road. The site also includes open fields. “I like Nature and dislike concrete,” explains Michelini, who has created a “family garden” by planting trees from all over the world. The land is also home to a variety of animals, including strutting peacocks, leaping squirrels, flocks of chickens and ducks, croaking frogs and migratory birds that visit every year. “I once had a nocturnal sika deer inspect the evening dance classes with me,” jokes Michelini.
Asked whether he is a romantic, Michelini demurs, saying that’s not the sort of thing one can judge for oneself. But as we walk through the gardens, he quietly urges the two peacocks leading us around the garden to fan their tail feathers for us to admire.
It’s a revealing moment that hints at a whimsical if not necessarily romantic side of Michelini’s character.
Having already founded a professional dance company that enables local dancers to preserve the joyful dances of their hometowns, in 2014 Fr. Michelini resolved to move on to the next stage of Lan Yang’s cultural blueprint by establishing an international children’s art village in Yilan. The planned arts village will include a professional performance space, multipurpose classrooms, and living spaces, and will draw on Lan Yang’s deep experience with arts exchanges. Michelini aims to make the venue one of Taiwan’s key dance centers by enabling international artists to remain here for longer periods of time.
Father Michelini has always felt that Taiwan needs to look outward and make friends with the world. With that in mind, he says: “Lan Yang has a clear orientation, one that only it can follow. We still have much more to give to Taiwan, and will continue to march ahead so long as we receive support.” Michelini is still working to realize his dreams in Taiwan, and hopes that the public will continue to endorse and support his endeavors.
Students at the Shengyin Kindergarten receive New Year’s red envelopes from “Father Grandpa” (Father Michelini).
After spurring the creation of the Yilan International Children’s Folklore and Folkgames Festival, Father Michelini helped it grow into one of Taiwan’s best-known international arts festivals by inviting artists from around the world to perform. (courtesy of Yilan County Cultural Affairs Bureau)
Father Michelini built the Catholic Center’s “family garden” with his own hands, and welcomes everyone to enjoy it.
Members of the Lan Yang Ballet enhance the Yilan landscape and introduce ballet into local lives by performing at scenic spots around the county. (courtesy of Lan Yang Dancers)