A career in the arts tends to be all consuming. Dancers and musicians, especially spend years learning their craft, and then hours each day practicing, even when they are not performing. But the members of U-Theater (優劇場) have, over the group's 18-year existence, taken dedication to their art to a whole new level.
U-Theater's performances are a unique — and uniquely Taiwanese — combination of martial arts, dancing, acting and drumming. But what has long set the group apart from other companies — or even drumming troupes like Japan's Kodo — is the emphasis on spiritual cultivation through mediation, and their togetherness.
Members not only have a variety of classes every day, they also meditate, rehearse and walk long distances together. While some of the company's 17 members have a background in dance, others have studied music or theater. But Malaysian-born Huang Chih-chun (黃誌群), the company's drumming director, said what a person has studied before is not as important as what he or she is willing to learn.
“I think the most important thing is patience, because we have a long training period, 10 years, 20 years. We're not afraid if a person knows nothing. I think if you have patience, then you can do anything,” he said in a recent interview at the U-Theater's foundation headquarters in Muzha.
“We go up to the mountain every day — to do martial arts, taichi, then meditation, then basic drumming training. In the afternoon we rehearse. Certain times we do mountain running,” Huang said. “Every year we like the members to go on a retreat to concentrate on meditation.”
It is all very different from what famed actress Liu Chin-min (劉靜敏) first had in mind when she founded the company in 1988. Back then she was seeking her cultural and theatrical roots in Taiwan's traditional folk and temple performances.
She dates the change to 1993, when Huang joined the company. He had been a dancer and drummer with the Cloud Gate Dance Company (雲門舞集), but had become increasingly interested in meditation.
“When he came to the company he brought drums and meditation. He gave the company a technique and a way of surviving. So in the 15 years since he came, [and] also the meditation ... changed our performances, our way of living, our personalities,” Liu said.
Huang also composes the group's music. But the company's new production, River Journey, which premieres at the National Theater next Thursday, is even more personal for Huang, because it is based on his poetry. The inspiration for the production came from a three-month trip Huang made to India five years ago, when he was so moved by the people, his experiences, even a bird that he watched, that he began to send poems back to the company.
“The poems mention that he met some beggars, a little boy, some old men playing the flute ... and he felt some connection with them. There was no difference between them. Even when he saw the little beggar, he felt some happiness from within the little boy,” Liu said.
Huang learned, she said, that you have “to empty yourself, then love will automatically fill you up inside,” if you concentrate on living in the moment.
“We decided to make this India journey, these poems, into a performance — each dance comes from a poem,” she said. The title is drawn from one of the poems.
River Journey also explores U-Theater's interest in sacred dance, which its members began studying 10 years ago.
While the trip in River Journey could be seen as an inner one, Liu and Huang believe that the wider world is crucial for U-Theater's members. “Every two or three years we arrange a journey — we went to Tibet [after the premier of Meeting with Vajrasattva two years ago], to India. We say this company is about life. We are very concerned that they [the troupe's members] can have this kind of life experience,” Liu said.
A lot of the company's traveling is done by foot, since walking is a vital component of its training regime. The company has become famous both at home and abroad for its walks.
“Walking training is very important for the company. Almost every year [we walk] — it depends on the project, how big it is. A few years ago we walked for 30 days — doing 26 performances in the evenings, from the south [of Taiwan] to Taipei. Two years later we walked again from the middle of Taiwan to the south to the east coast. For the walk in Tibet, to Kailas [a 6,714m mountain in Tibet sacred to Tibetans and Hindus], we had training here.
Three days to walk the mountain, walking from six in the morning to 11 at night, almost 78km,” Liu said.
More big walks are in the offing. The company is planning a two-week walk around Jogjakarta, Indonesia, next year. They will also return to India before the end of this year and hopefully Tibet next June.
But first there will be a trip of a different kind.
The company has been away from its mountain home for more than a year, waiting for the renovation work on their flood-and-termite-damaged studio and performance space, to be completed. They are hoping to move back in sometime in November.
The company's long-term future is a natural preoccupation for both Liu and Huang, and not just in terms of finances. They are looking for future members among the pre-teen set.
“For us the most important [thing] is the performer usually comes [to us] after university, or maybe they have worked for a while, so they are already ‘a little aged,’” Liu said. “It's better to start the music, the body from a very young age.”
Huang started drumming at 11. However, he notes that he first heard traditional drumming when he was five and found it “very attractive.”
The problem is that most parents are focused on their children's academic education, with little time for extra-curricular activities.
“Parents usually have kids do piano, the violin or martial arts. Rarely do they combine the two,” Liu said. “For me these two are the same. When we move our body it is music also; we can know from the movement [about] the music.”
U-Theater began to offer classes for children a few years ago, working through nearby junior high schools, in the hope of finding youngsters who were interested in drumming, in music, in martial arts, and who might one day want to join the company.
“In the very first class there were 24 kids at the beginning. Now only three [from that class] are still doing it,” Liu said. “One parent even moved to Muzha so her children could study with U-Theater.”
There are now 14 young “members” who sometimes perform with the troupe. “They may not all be real ‘U-Theater members’ [when they're adults] but that's why we arranged the foundation, [and] we try to arrange schooling for them. We have to think how to connect to high schools, to connect to universities ... how they can continue their education,” Liu said.
This is a big challenge, but one that both Liu and Huang have enthusiastically embraced. Liu said meditation has helped her deal with such challenges.
“It's not [that things get] easier, but [there is] more freedom from the outside ... more of a change, so when you see the problem you see it in a different way,” she said.
“I'm really happy with the change in the company. Happy that I can still do this work,” Liu said. “I love this job.”
Performance notes:
WHAT: U-Theater's River Journey
WHERE: National Theater, Taipei
WHEN: Thursday to Sept. 23 at 7:45pm and Sept. 24, at 2:45pm.
TICKETS: NT$400, NT$600, NT$900, NT$1,200, NT$1,600, NT$2,000 and NT$2,500; available at the theater box office or through artsticket.com.tw
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