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.
This month Taiwan received a brutal Christmas present as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) passed all three of its desired amendments, making recalls of elected officials more difficult, gutting the Constitutional Court and altering the budgetary allocations to local governments. The nation at present has no ultimate authority to determine the constitutionality of government actions, and the local governments, largely controlled by the KMT, have much greater funding. We are staring into an abyss of chaos. The amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法), if they become law (as of this writing President William Lai
Dec. 30 to Jan. 5 Premiering on Jan. 4, 1956, Xue Pinggui and Wang Baochuan (薛平貴與王寶釧) unexpectedly packed theaters for the next 27 days. Taiwan’s first 35mm Hoklo-language (commonly known as Taiwanese) movie beat out the top Hollywood blockbuster, Land of the Pharaohs, and the Mandarin-language Peach Blossom River (桃花江) in box office sales, kicking off a craze that lasted until around 1970. More than 800 Hoklo-language films were made despite government attempts to promote Mandarin. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) owned the nation’s three major production houses, mostly creating Mandarin films filled with anti-communist messages and patriotic propaganda. But most
Charges have formally been brought in Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) bribery, corruption and embezzling of campaign funds cases. Ko was briefly released on bail by the Taipei District Court on Friday, but the High Court on Sunday reversed the decision. Then, the Taipei District Court on the same day granted him bail again. The ball is in dueling courts. While preparing for a “year ahead” column and reviewing a Formosa poll from last month, it’s clear that the TPP’s demographics are shifting, and there are some indications of where support for the party is heading. YOUNG, MALE
When the weather is too cold to enjoy the white beaches and blue waters of Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁), it’s the perfect time to head up into the hills and enjoy a different part of the national park. In the highlands above the bustling beach resorts, a simple set of trails treats visitors to lush forest, rocky peaks, billowing grassland and a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the coast. The rolling hills beyond Hengchun Township (恆春) in Pingtung County offer a two-hour through-hike of sweeping views from the mighty peak of Dajianshih Mountain (大尖石山) to Eluanbi Lighthouse (鵝鑾鼻燈塔) on the coast, or
RSS