Ask anyone who has seen a group of fireflies suddenly make their presence felt in an autumn moment on a quiet country lane, and they will most likely use words like magical, breathtaking, spectacular. It forms a memory that will last a lifetime. Scientists have now identified the genetic coding for the enzymes and substrates used by these bugs to create their bioluminescence, even to the point of splicing them into all manner of other animals in an attempt to recreate this most magical of creatures. But ultimately, understanding and even being able to recreate the miracle of the firefly is cold comfort. Not so in the case of the Diabolo Dance Theatre.
In their latest show "Spin! The Rebirth of Diabolo," DDT director Calvin Wang and artistic director Liu Le-chun have managed to recreate for their audiences the experience of seeing nature's firefly dance for the very first time, with all the magic, awe and wonder that accompanies it in nature. Like the effortlessness of the beetle's mating display, these choreographers used a deceptively simple apparatus to create the effect: a child's toy consisting of two sticks joined by a piece of string that controls a spool-shaped spinner. With dozens of these diabolos in the hands of skilled performers, and thanks to the clever use of black lights, DDT effectively transports viewers to an autumn evening of their youth when they witnessed the firefly for the very first time.
The Taiwan Journal caught up with Liu and his gang of young performers at Taipei's Jhong Jheng Elementary School, where they were going through one final dress rehearsal for friends and family before leaving on a tour of Canada. Liu was making a last check of the lighting and sound systems, counting the 193 diabolos and various other props used in each performance, and keeping a keen eye on the 19 performers as they got ready to travel overseas. While that group, varying in age from seven to 23, is plenty large, it represents only a part of the DDT family. During the rehearsal, a dozen or two other young diabolists turned up, put on their leotards and started practicing, as they do three times a week, all year round.
Liu explained that Jhong Jheng, like many elementary schools in Taiwan, had long maintained a skilled and dedicated group of diabolo players. A former teacher at the school, he fell deeply in love with the diabolo, even to the point of considering it an art form, rather than the kid's game it started as in China. He eventually left the teaching profession and, almost exactly 20 years ago, founded DDT, infusing elements of gymnastics and dance into its performances.
Based in Taipei's Daan district, the company organizes skills and dance workshops, in addition to putting on shows.
In its first major performance, 1994's "Passing the Diabolo Baton," DDT sought to inject new life to the ancient toy through the synchronized manipulation of large numbers of diabolos by many performers. Another dimension was added in 1995's "Diabolo Rhythm" and 1996's "Four Seasons," in which performers gyrated through gymnastic movements set to pulsating music, all the while spinning their diabolos with ever-improving skill. Black lights and fluorescent diabolos, which today are used to imitate fireflies, were first introduced 1998's "Diabolo Masters."
While this might seem an obvious artistic step, the skills and concentration needed to manipulate diabolos--alone and in formation--in near pitch-black conditions are almost unimaginable. For example, when asked which part of the show he finds most difficult, 17-year-old Liao Shuo-en replied without hesitation, "The firefly scene." His role in this scene requires him to manipulate three diabolos by himself on a single string in the dark for the better part of a minute, throwing them higher and higher, and then catching them in a low holding pattern.
In contrast, Yang Hsing-yi answered the same question in her native Chinese. "Mo ci," she said, putting a name to the unspoken understanding and indefinable connection that performers often share onstage. "With some people you just seem to have that feeling, with others it takes a lot of work and still might not come," explained Yang, the 23-year-old lead female dancer and a full-time DDT instructor.
The company's 2000 offering, "Crazy Jazz," and 2001's "Magic Diabolo" brought the traditional art form into the modern age by introducing jazz and rock 'n' roll as background music, as well as having the performers use ballet and contemporary dance moves. Liu said he was trying to increase the theatricality and dramatic tension in his shows.
By the time those shows were being staged, DDT had attracted the attention of Lin Hwai-min, choreographer and founder of Taiwan's top modern dance troupe, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, who gave the diabolists an enthusiastic thumbs up, some personal advice, and introductions to a number of his own collaborators. These included director Calvin Wang, lighting designer Chang Tsan-tao, set designer Austin Wang and music designer Liang Chun-mei. They all ended up working with DDT.
The group also came to the attention of the government-funded National Culture and Arts Foundation, which was on the lookout for performance groups to fly the ROC flag around the world.
A maturing of style can be seen in 2002's "Legend of Diabolo Dance," which used motifs from Peking opera and Chinese martial arts, and now in "Spin!" for which the group traded in its usual rhythmic musical backing for the more subtle, emotional, demanding sounds of the likes of Schubert's "Trout," Rachmaninoff's " Vocalise Op. 34 No. 14," Ma Shui-long's "Concerto for Bamboo Flute" and Mozart's "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman variations," better known as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."
"Without the strong rhythms, there is more of a theatrical demand on the performers," explained DDT choreographer Bian Guo-hua, who is also Liu's wife. "With more theater, there is more chance to touch the audience's soul." Bian's words are echoed by the performance: At no point do the technical skills become more important than the dance performance.
"Spin!" unfolds over the four seasons of a year and thus represents the seasons of childhood. It is intended as a study of the cycle of innocence, play, loss of innocence and growth.
It opens with children skipping through the summer morning grass as their parents sleep. Stumbling across some diabolos, the children are entranced and, from that moment on, the ancient toys become both a companion and a metaphor for their changing lives. A second summer scene takes place by a cool riverside, where the interacting diabolos thrown rapidly from dancer to dancer symbolize childhood friendship, socialization and perhaps even an element of flirtatiousness. This gender interplay develops further in "Fall" as the children become teenagers.
The four boys in DDT's own cast belie the cynic's disbelief that teenage boys, after discovering the opposite sex, still have time for a children's toy. At age 17 and after almost a decade in DDT, Liao still practices at home every day, in addition to the eight to 10 hours he spends at the regular group practices.
The second scene of "Fall" starts with the dusk discovery of fireflies which, as mentioned above, would make a very moving end to this, or any, performance. "Spin!" continues, however, and set against the falling leaves and rising moon of "Winter," the first seeds of love are sown. Naturally, with the coming of "Spring," these blossom, and another year, another cycle of life, is completed.
After the rehearsal, the whole DDT family gathers, and begins to assemble the 193 diabolos and to break down the lighting and curtains. Suddenly the atmosphere changes, as Chen Chin-cheng, a representative of the National Culture and Arts Foundation--one of DDT's largest benefactors--steps from the shadows. The dancers immediately gather round to hear his views on the show. It is he, after all, along with Cloud Gate's technical advisors, who has reshaped DDT to make it capable of representing Taiwan on the world stage.
After giving advice to the performers on representing Taiwan to the world, Chen was asked if it is a problem for Taiwan to be identified with the Chinese diabolo, especially at a time when the ROC government is looking for a purely Taiwanese cultural face to show to the world. "Not at all," he replied.
Returning with a rhetorical question, he asked, "What's your impression of Chinese diabolists? Someone in a circus ring, performing tricks with a forced smile and a look of boredom on his or her face, right? Now look at these diabolo dancers; naturally happy, innovative, free, creative. That's the image of Taiwan, the modern Taiwan identity."
Diabolo Dance Theatre will be performing "Spin! The Rebirth of Diabolo" at the Hummingbird Center for Performing Arts in Toronto July 7-9, and at Vancouver's Massey Theatre in July 14-16. After their return to Taiwan, the troupe will repeat its performance Aug. 12 for domestic audiences as part of the Taipei Children's Festival.