The Taipei Folk Dance Theater (台北民族舞團) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a weekend program titled Crazy Taiwan 2008 at Taipei’s Metropolitan Hall that celebrates the history and the diversity of Taiwanese culture.
Dance professor Tsai Li-hua (蔡麗華) founded the Taipei Folk Dance Theater in September 1988 to preserve and promote the country’s dance heritage, which she saw as a mix of traditional Chinese dance and folklore, Hakka culture, Aboriginal cultures and modern dance. She drew upon her years of research into the music and movements of ethnic dances — going back to 1974 — to choreograph new pieces for her company, which was the first professional ethnic dance troupe in the country.
Tsai was part of a movement among Taiwanese theater and dance people in the 1980s to examine the cultural rituals of daily life and their society and move them from temple plazas and streets into theaters, a movement that included Liu Ruo-yu (劉若瑀), who founded U-Theater (優人神鼓), and Lin Lee-chen (林麗珍), who founded the Legend Lin Dance Theater’s (無垢舞蹈劇場). All three companies have become ambassadors for Taiwanese culture through the hundreds of performances they have given around the world.
On the program this weekend are four pieces, including one by Tsai, that reflect the company’s mission and achievement in interpreting Taiwanese culture. Tsai said the program aims to show how new meaning can be drawn from updating tradition while staying true to its original spirit.
Tsai’s piece, Wild Taiwan (狂想台灣), asks what does tradition mean and what role does it play in a technologically advanced, mass-communication society. Is tradition even still necessary? She has fused diverse elements from Chinese opera, Hakka culture, hip-hop street dance and Aboriginal culture into the work.
She said she was aided by input from her son, dancer-choreographer Lin Wen-chung (林文中), who took time out from working on his own company’s inaugural production next month to give his mom and her dancers some “street moves.”
Flower in the Mirror (鏡花), choreographed by Hu Ming-shan (胡民山), is both a paen to and an examination of Chinese classical dance esthetics and traditions.
Witch in the Wind (風中的巫師), by Liu Shu-ying (劉淑英), blends the traditional Ami culture of what Liu called “Ami cultural warriors” and 100 years of “witch dancing.”
Guo Ruei-ling’s (郭瑞林) Oh God! (神啊！) is a tribute to the role that deities play in everyday life in modern Taiwan: people ask them for help, pray to them for guidance and offer gifts ranging from food and tea to paying for opera performances for them. Tsai said the piece shows how the gods protect people, the earth and encourage everyday acts of kindness.
Taipei Folk Dance Theater productions appeal to both dance lovers and parents looking for family-friendly entertainment, with their mix of well-trained dancers, bright costumes and lively choreography.
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