Bulareyaung Dance Company
Expressing and self-discovering its indigenous heritage and culture
Expressing and self-discovering its indigenous heritage and culture
The Bulareyaung Dance Company was founded in 2015 in Taitung by Bulareyaung Pagarlava, an indigenous choreographer from Taiwan.
The creation of dance pieces and dancer training are accomplished by working in the mountains and singing old chants by the waterside. Dancers develop unique body movements and vocabulary by delving into their indigenous heritage and culture through regular field trips.
Since its founding, the company has presented several productions, including La Song (2015), Qaciljay (2016), Colors (2016), Stay That Way (2017), Luna (2018), #Yes or No (2019), Not Afraid of the Sun and Rain (2021), Rustling, Whirring (2022), tiaen tiamen Episode 1 (2023), and tiaen tiamen Episode 2 (2024).
Stay That Way won the Taishin Performing Arts Award in 2017, and Luna further won the coveted Taishin Arts Award Annual Grand Prize in 2018. BDC is the first performing troupe to be awarded in two consecutive years. The Company has been invited to various performances and has also toured the United States, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, and France.
tiaen tiamen Episode 1
Newborn sounds are aflame with fearless fervor. Tradition all of a sudden underwent too much reform, and could only be expressed through pointing. Look! That is the world they created, and you are part of it.
tiaen tiamen Episode 1
Everyone is a unique one, but also a zero that is in harmony with the universe. In tiaen tiamen Episode 1 produced by the Bulareyaung Dance Company, Choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava invites ABAO, a Paiwan singer and songwriter, to generate musical currents, and reretan pavavaljung, a Paiwan visual artist, to create visual ripples. With them leading the way, let us follow the dancers and leap into the electronic generation composed of zeros and ones.
Bulareyaung rebelled against his regular creation process, allowing fervent young Paiwan artists to lead the way. They reach out their hands to point, stroke, and touch, experiencing a lively new world without bounds wherever they go.
“Our forces converge like a river, and rush towards that direction,” said reretan. Proficient in transforming ancient folk songs into electronic music, ABAO tailor-made an acoustic party for the whole dance piece, liberating our auditory senses with free-spirited, language-transcending music.
Projection designer Hsu Yi-chun, a long-term collaborator of the Company, transformed powerful images created by reretan for dancers to interact with and immerse themselves in, generating a visual effect of such sublime vibrance that it eventually became another brilliant performer of its own onstage. This is a piece in which artists join hands to entice dancers to leap into the flow and release the infinite momentum exclusive to their utmost restless youth.
Choreography Bulareyaung Pagarlava; Music Director ABAO; Music Arranger & Mixer Wanna; Image Painting reretan pavavaljung; Lighting Designer Lee Chien-chang; Projection Designer Hsu Yi-chun; Costume Designer Keith Lin Bing-hao
Avant-garde, creative, and futuristic, the work leads the audience to ever-higher climaxes, yet interspersed Paiwan nursery rhymes spontaneously bring them back to the nostalgic past. The juxtaposition of avant-garde movements and childlike delights seems irreconcilable, but in fact the two complement each other seamlessly. One could not help but wish to delve further by following the trodden path of the choreographer during his journey of self exploration.
—Lu Yu-chen, Reviewing Performing Arts Taiwan
tiaen tiamen Episode 1 started off with ancient totems and chants of an aboriginal tribe, and was essentially a rave experiment of light and sound integrating wisdom from the past animistic world with the culture of contemporary electronic music. In today’s world, in which identity and international politics are leaning dangerously towards fascism, this piece created a free and liberating 65-min experience through which one is soothed with dazing ecstasy.
—Hsu Jen-hao, Taishinart ARTalks
OzAsia Festival, Adelaide, Australia
National Theater, Taipei, Taiwan
National Taichung Theater, Taichung, Taiwan
Luna
Not Afraid of the Sun and Rain
Colors
Qaciljay
