Living in Paiwan Community, Searching for Traditions, and Exploring the Contemporary Time
Interviewee/ Baru Madiljin
Interviewer/ Wang Yu Cheng (Coordinator of Text Records)
Translator/ Artist Translation Service 譯術家專業翻譯工作室
Q: What is tradition?
For me, a tradition is something that was produced in that time, in that environment, at that moment. The present time is this time. All the things we are facing now may become some kind of tradition after a long time. For example, our group is now working on the bodies. What we do may become a tradition after some time. Take Martha Graham for example. She is a tradition in contemporary dance. Perhaps we will also become a tradition or a technique, a body being passed down from this age.
The tradition we are looking for right now is the one that is the closest to tribes. It must be the most natural, without acting. It needs to be about living in a tribe and something that is happening. And this something has to be a tradition as well, instead of a projection from the outside world. It has to be related to stone slab houses and tribal clothing. In our tribe, we don’t have these. There are more and more beautiful houses. And people’s living standard is getting higher and higher. But when it comes to weddings, funerals, events, and festivals, we still do things according to the traditional ways in our tribal.
In my opinion, after the living standard has reached a certain level, we would begin to care about how to preserve the things created, extended, and left by the VUVUs (grandparents). Perhaps some smaller tribes are near lowlands and people in these tribes speak Taiwanese. Even their religious beliefs have changed. It’s harder and harder to maintain their traditions. It seems like they care more about living a good life. But in our tribe, after you learn more, you cherish more the things the older generations handed down.
Besides their spirit, traditions are also about practices. They must be doable and have been done by some people.
Q: Why are traditions disappearing?
Our tribe was developed into a tourist region a long time ago. Initially, we started to lose some traditions for there were too many outsiders moving in, making this place a commercial area. For example, a cultural part was opened to provide pay-shows for tourists. To cater to tourists, a lot of traditions were gone back then. In the same period of time, the tribal people became aware of the lost of our traditions and started to pay attention to this issue.
Q: What do you think about Kaishiki Nrityabhasha and Odissi Dance?
In my opinion, Odissi Dance is just another form of dance. For a graduate of the department of dance, it is simply another body in a different culture. It is like seeing the Martha Graham or Jose Limon faction as a technique to use bodies. However, after getting to know more about Odissi Dance, I realized that there is so much in it. It is amazing that these things can be preserved in that kind of environment. I was totally surprised. That made me curious about how they were able to create these things and how these things can be handed down like this for so long. And how was the dance they work on right now developed?
These years, I have been studying the composition of the traditional four-step dance, a traditional Paiwan dance. This time, I saw their steps, hundreds and thousands of types of steps, and found them very interesting. Therefore, this time, I wanted to do some experiment by using the steps from the Odissi Dance as well as those from the four-step dance of the Paiwan culture. I wanted to combine them to create an old new soul. Choreographers often focus on telling stories. I, on the other hand, prefer to focus on the bodies. Moreover, I am quite interested in the way they count. I like the gestures used for counting and the tonality with them. I would like to include these elements in my work as well.
The four-step dance of the Paiwan culture is just that simple. However, people nowadays have already lost their rhythm. As you can see, the Kaishiki dancers and we all stay low. However, the Kaishiki dancers stay even lower. In our warrior dance, it is also essential to keep your center of gravity low. Yet, there are jumping movements in the dance, so your center of gravity may move up a little bit and then go back down. This movement is based on the body movement of going through the bushes and rocks in the forest for hunting. The movement is very light. I would like to include all these elements in this work.
Q: What are the physical differences and similarities between the Kaishiki Nrityabhasha dancers and the Tjimur dancers?
Actually, I realize that it is similar in many cultures. Dancers’ upper bodies are rather soft or relaxed. Or you can say that they are more likely to express their emotions through their upper bodies. Yet, their lower bodies are rather strong and powerful.
In my opinion, the biggest difference between Kaishiki dancers and ours is that our dancers all have dance related educational backgrounds with professional trainings. For me, this is a key point. Dancers with school trainings can better control their bodies in a more stable way. You can see the difference when it comes to movements in related to the lost of balance. Tjimur dancers are more than dancers with professional trainings as they also have cultural foundations. They have been living in the tribe and participated in tribal activities. They can integrate their cultural foundations with professional dancing skills. And their body control is outstanding. On the other hand, when Kaishiki dancers perform Odissi Dance, they are very charming in their own way. However, it may take longer for them to learn something new, and they can’t do new things with such good stability as our dancers. When our dancers perform Odissi Dance, they can memorize the moves very quickly or find their balance very quickly, but they just don’t have that kind of charm.