Tsai Jui-yueh is a pioneer who devoted her life to the Taiwanese modern dance. Born in Tainan City in 1921 she learned the basics of dancing from Ishii Baku the Japanese ldquo;father of modern dance rdquo; before committing herself to introducing modern dance into Taiwan. She was revered as ldquo; the mother of Taiwanese modern dance rdquo; because of her 500-odd productions that cover genres ranging from ballet to folk dances of all ethnicities; the productions she helped inspired include: ldquo;The Song of India rdquo; and ldquo;We Love Our Taiwan rdquo;. The historic structure of Tsai Jui-yueh Dance Research Institute was one of the tens of dormitories for Japanese colonial officials built around 1925 on Zhongshan N. Rd. and downtown Taipei; they were mostly wooden Japanese-style duplexes. In 1953 Tsai purchased this former residence of a Japanese ldquo;Haninkan rdquo; official with part of the house designated for choreographic rehearsals. She went on to convert it into a dance studio. In 1999 scholars insisted that Tsai rsquo;s dance studio once destroyed in a fire and coveted by real estate developers should be restored as a historic site in homage to Taiwanese modern dance.