When not working on award-winning productions, Formosa Aboriginal Song and Dance Troupe (原舞者) artistic director Faidaw Fagod teaches at a New Taipei City high school to keep the artistic legacy of Aboriginal culture alive.
The troupe, which Fagod cofounded in 1991, derives its culturally authentic performances from meticulous field research that it conducts with Aboriginal elders from the nation’s many Aboriginal communities, New Taipei City Department of Education Commissioner Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said.
Nine years after founding the troupe, Fagod began teaching at Jinshan High School in what was then-Taipei County’s Jinshan Township (金沙) and brings the same energy, drive and attention to detail that characterized his stage work to the classroom, Lin said.
Fagod commutes from Pingtung to New Taipei City by bus every Monday, a schedule that he said often leaves him exhausted.
The school’s Aboriginal arts and performances program teaches traditional songs and dances, provides an immersive environment in which students can learn Aboriginal languages and offers a potential career path for aspiring dancers, he said.
Such programs are crucial to the survival of Aboriginal culture at a time when urban-dwelling Aborigines are increasingly losing touch with their heritage, Fagod said.
When most of his students started the class, they had no functional knowledge of the songs, dances or even the languages of their communities, he said.
Fagod said preserving cultural heritage is like tending a garden.
“Just as the autumn flowers fall to nourish the soil for the trees next spring, accumulated experience becomes culture,” he said.
Lessons begin with singing, followed by dance practice, which emphasizes the precise footwork of traditional dancing, he said.
The dances and songs are sacred to Aboriginal traditions and taking them lightly would be blasphemous, he said.
“Singing should be joyful and the footwork needs to convey a leaping movement,” he said.
Fagod said he also encourages his students to keep up with their coursework.
“Aborigines should not consider ourselves disadvantaged. We must take pride in our identity and be strong. This is the main reason I was inspired to work on passing down our culture,” he said.
Fagod said the classroom is a place for developing dance as a language and a form of artistic expression, adding that he is happy to see that many of his students have become dancers and teachers of the traditional arts.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final