BULABULAY MUN? – HOW ARE YOU?

Indigenous dance company with a poetic series of images between tradition and modernity

The dance project ‘bulabulay mun? – How Are You?’ asks how open wounds and historical trau- mas in our collective memories can be healed through art. Baru Madiljin’s choreography takes an historic shipwreck, the Mudan incident of 1874, a traumatic event in Taiwanese history, as the basis to reflect on the relationship between human actions and their (unexpected) consequences. It recounts this historic shipwreck off the coast of Taiwan in a minimalist but boldly visual manner as the story of a group of people who are suddenly exposed to the unsuspect- ed power of the wind and the waves, and who become aware how much they have become estranged from nature. To show this, the choreographer has incorporated natural elements such as wood, stones and the sounds of nature into the choreography in a poetic manner. Nevertheless, the production also regards itself as a form of healing through song and through a newly-found awareness of our own human vulnerability.

The Tjimur Dance Theatre is Taiwan’s first professional dance company to practice a contemporary interpretation of the folk dances and movement rituals of the Paiwan (now Taiwan’s second-largest indigenous group and possesses its own language). It was founded in 2006 by Artistic Director Ljuzem Madiljin and choreographer Baru Madiljin. The company combines singing and dancing, using its singing as dance movements to represent the extraordinary phys- ical forms of expression in Paiwan culture – an approach that is unique among Taiwan’s conemporary dance companies.