While many people in Taiwan welcome various forms of art from around the world, some are digging deeply into the country's soul for inspiration. One group seeks to emphasize the cultural significance of Taiwanese folk dance, something that is commonly seen but rarely fully appreciated.
The elegant movements of ballet or many other forms of modern and folk dance inspire dancers to devote their time and energy to pursing a career in the profession. Taiwan's folk dances, however, require performers to imitate the movements of various gods, many of whom have strange and clumsy postures. The ponderous strides and close-to-the-ground movements may deter some dancers who seek elegance, but they prove to capture the hearts of audiences nonetheless.
The Taipei Folk Dance Theatre (TFDT), established in September 1988 by Tsai Li-hua, was Taiwan's first professional group endeavoring to preserve and promote the country's grassroots dance culture. The troupe focuses on aboriginal dances from various tribes across the island, as well as the traditional forms of musical performances of the Holo and Hakka groups of Han origin. Performing with a refined theatrical style without sacrificing the original authenticity and vitality, the group has appeared in at least 550 performances in over forty countries worldwide. It has also won dozens of top prizes from various national and international contests and festivals, and has appeared in world-renowned theaters such as the Lincoln Center in New York and the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver.
As early as in its second year, the TFDT was invited to take part in a nine-country tour of Europe and Africa. The group returned to Taiwan with three gold medals from South Africa's Fifth Roodepoort International Eisteddfod, where it was praised by the local press as being "the most impressive and powerful Oriental dance company." Standout performances included The Malan Dance, a dance the Ami in Taitung County's Malan Village perform to celebrate the harvest, as well as The Taiwan Jumping Drums and The Confucian Ritual Dance, representations of the folk dances performed as part of rituals during celebrations at Taiwanese temples.
In 1991, the TFDT took third place in the category of best artistic folklore group at the Forty-fourth International Dance Festival in Dijon, France, among competitors from forty-four countries. The same year, also in France, the group won the Best Performance, Best Choreography, and Best Folklore Design awards at the Festival International Chateauneuf du Faou. The award-winning production on both occasions was entitled Homage to Gods, a sequence consisting of five different forms of Taiwanese ritual dance. In 1993 at the Sixth Roodepoort International Eisteddfod in South Africa, the TFDT added four more gold medals to its list of accomplishments for its performances of Festival Parade, Portrait of Court Maidens , Ten Commanders, and Ami Flying Fish .
It was only after the TFDT received acclaim from abroad that it began to attract more attention at home. "Many people in the profession were surprised to realize that Taiwanese ritual dance could be a beautiful art form," says Tsai Li-hua, who is the group's art director and a professor of the Taipei Physical Education College. "We started out when ritual parades and performances for entertaining gods of the local temples were dismissed as superstitious acts, or too uncouth to enter the realm of art. But in fact, they are precious cultural assets that have been handed down for nearly a hundred years through performances. The movements contain many delicate gestures and possess a finesse that has been inspired by devotees. The deeper I explore them, the more I am attracted by their subtlety and richness."
Tsai began to study Taiwanese traditional dance in 1974 when few other dancers even considered directing their attention to the subject. In general, most performers in temple celebrations--ceremonies that marked the birthdays of the gods or the temples--are male worshippers, even those who portray female characters. Several months prior to the celebrations, many families would team up in groups of eight or more and practice their assigned parts together, usually after work. They believed that the gods would protect them the whole year in exchange for their efforts. The shows have been dubbed "village dances" in Taiwanese, and the practice continues in many areas of the country, especially in the south such as Tainan and Kaohsiung counties.
Many performers begin as teenagers, learning the different chants, dance steps, and martial arts moves along the way. They demonstrate their skills during ceremonies for as long as their physical condition and age permit. Those with masterly dance skills are invited to tour the country and train prospective performers. Today, many such masters are now advanced in years, and their talent has prompted Tsai Li-hua to follow and learn from them to preserve the native culture. A few masters have even been invited to teach members of the TFDT, which currently includes twenty-four professional dancers.
Tsai Li-hua's collection of Taiwanese dances did not become part of a professional program until then chairman of the Council for Cultural Affairs (CCA), Chen Chi-lu, commissioned her in 1988 to design programs for the Youth Cultural and Artistic Center, then a newly established venue for artistic performances. The theme for the programs was demonstrating the flair of Taiwan's native culture. It included performances such as the chants of Hakka tea pickers, the aboriginal Hair Dance from Orchid Island, and the Taiwanese Jumping Drums, a type of folk dance depicting military exercises by a group of eight people. "The most distinctive characteristic of the TFDT's work is that every move we make is documented from actual performances and studied," Tsai notes. "We rarely alter the steps and gestures except to arrange them for the stage and to quicken or strengthen the tempos."
The TFDT put on between eighty and a hundred performances a year prior to 1996, but the number has since declined to forty due to a recession experienced within artistic circles. Dancers typically spend half their time learning and rehearsing for the next production, normally one new piece a year, and they spend the rest of the time teaching in private classes and schools to support themselves.
The TFDT is one of the groups that receive support from the CCA. The troupe collects NT$1 million (US$29,400) in subsidies a year--enough to sustain the group for about three months. County governments may subsidize the group NT$80,000 (US$2,350) for each show performed in their districts, and city governments NT$150,000 (US$4,400). These funds, in addition to ticket sales, help cover the cost of each production. Tsai also contributes a portion of her family's income to meet the TFDT's payroll. "Almost every artistic group struggles with financial problems," TFDT's founder says. "I hope that the government will provide more support for traditional art. At least two-thirds of the CCA-supported teams focus on imported art forms."
With no regret, the art director is seeking to inject new spirit into her work. Many of the Taiwanese temples are dedicated to Taoist gods, but Buddhism also plays an important role in Taiwan. One of TFDT's recent works, The Obsession of Mandala, reflects an interest in the Zen idea of combining body, soul, and mind in one. The performance was lauded in New York as the start of a new aesthetics of Oriental body language. The group plans to alternate its productions of religious and folk dance annually in the future. This year's performance will be a retrospective of the group's work over the past fifteen years, and is scheduled to be staged at the end of this year.