Remember the Fire Drum Circle (火鼓祭) at Huashan Arts District (華山藝文特區), which was slammed by a couple of Taipei city councilmen for being a “foreigners’ ecstasy party” some seven years ago? What about Swirl (旋), the show whose nude scenes caused more outrage in 2003? Sun Son Theatre (身聲演繹劇場), which organized both, is reviving lauded its Aurora (光音) performance, five years after its premiere, as a celebration of the performance art troupe’s 10th birthday, but this time sans nudity or controversy.
As artistic director Leonson Ng (吳忠良) puts it, Aurora is a mother’s aria inspired by his wife and fellow artist Chien Yan-chen’s (簡妍臻) pregnancy and motherhood. In terms of form, the work encapsulates the troupe’s distinct style of performance art, which combines music, dance and theater.
Sun Son was formed by four experienced artists when they left U-Theatre (優劇場). The nascent group embraced African drumming. Compared to Chinese and Japanese drumming, the African version is more communicative and invites audiences to dance. The group went on to explore ancient musical practices from various cultures.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SUN SON THEATRE
For Malaysian-born Ng, such practices represent a form of purity and a sense of truth as participants have to unconditionally believe in what they are doing.
Arts from the past are fused with contemporary theatrical elements that allow exploration of new aesthetic vocabularies.
In Aurora, performers are silhouetted onto a black curtain as they crawl, twirl and appear to sleep. Folk musician Pan Li-li (潘麗莉) chants while fire dance artist Chang Yu-wei (張育瑋) illuminates the stage.
In addition to Indian rhythms played by tabla drummer Toshihiro Wakaike and sitar player Ryohei Kanemistu, both from Japan, traditional music instruments from more than 10 different regions orchestrate a live tribal sound that includes the didgeridoo from Australia, kulintangan from Malaysia, drums from Nepal, Easter Island and Africa, as well as the Tibetan gong.
Ng said the restaging of Aurora offers him a new way to converse with his inner self. “When I created the piece in 2004, I was, in fact, full of fear … . Most of the time, we use a father’s logic to operate and live in society. When you try to enter the world of the mother, there is a distance you are afraid to cross … . For years, I’ve tried to restage it with a different attitude. This time it’s more romantic, like taking a stroll rather than stumbling through the journey with my eyes tightly closed,” he said, laughing.
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