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.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS