kemeljang．so ?
2021
Choreographer｜Baru MADILJIN
2021
Choreographer｜Baru MADILJIN
Taiwan's first "Sound and Silent Contemporary Dance" developed in international, Italian, and Taiwanese sign languages.
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Kemeljang is a Paiwanese means understanding, once again dig deeper into the thoughts from a different self! Everyone has their own thoughts, but when we can say it completely or obscurely, there is a group of people who cannot choose the way of expression. Maybe they are born with or acquired influence, which causes the sound to be unfamiliar to them. When we want to shout out pain in heart in a breath, they use fingers and facial expressions to convey it. But if we have never been in touch with sign language, then who can understand their pain.
After you have watched the dance quietly, we will find that true understanding requires sincere acceptance. Acceptance is tolerance, mutual and understanding! Letting go of ourselves, treating and accepting sincerely is a topic we need to learn together! The director of Ljuzem and choreographer Baru hopes to bring the world to art inclusiveness through this work, and achieve the social environment of "cultural equality". |
Words from the Artistic Director / Ljuzem MADILJIN
2021 was the 15th anniversary of Tjimur Dance Theatre. We could never have foreseen that the heavens had their plans, and we couldn’t deny fate when it came.
For the past two years, we have been unable to perform abroad due to the pandemic, but that gave us an abundance of time to polish one of our pieces. Baru choreographed kemeljang ‧ so? by integrating performance and language. Everyone raised questions about combining these two seemingly conflicting elements, but the choreographer refused to give up and searched for a way to strike a balance between them.
The dancers sang, danced, and used sign language as they conveyed their emotions through dance. In this performance, they had to open their ears and hearts to multiple means of expression, and it was an enormous breakthrough for all of them. We have never performed a piece half-heartedly, and in this one we likewise spared no effort to share every second with the audience.
“Do that which is difficult:” such is the spirit of Tjimur Dance Theatre.
After more than a year of practice, I walked into the rehearsal room one day and saw the dancers. Suddenly it felt as if they weren’t just performing using sign language; rather, they seemed like people who truly relied on sign language in their daily lives. Watching the piece, I felt like I had walked into the world of the hearing impaired, and this world wasn’t sad, but full of joy. Suddenly, I understood. In the piece kemeljang (a Paiwan word meaning “to understand” or “to know”), what we want to explore is, “Do you really understand? Now that you do understand, what happens next? Is it possible for us to approach people who are different from ourselves?”
In this, our fifteenth year, we are like an adolescent who is full of passion and wishes to keep going forward, but fears that he isn’t good enough. To find ourselves practicing and perfecting kemeljang‧ so? at this time is as if the heavens saw our abilities and efforts and arranged it for us to create a very difficult piece to tell us that we are capable.
In kemeljang ‧ so?, I saw a level of confidence in Baru that I had never seen ever since he had returned to our tribe --- after coming back home and living in the tribe for thirteen years, he worked hard at understanding and listened well, and now Baru has found himself in his dance pieces. This seems to suggest that Tjimur Dance Theatre has also completed the stage of finding itself and is now in full operation. We no longer have to question our identity; we can concentrate on sharing the value of existence and passing it on to others.
2021 was the 15th anniversary of Tjimur Dance Theatre. We could never have foreseen that the heavens had their plans, and we couldn’t deny fate when it came.
For the past two years, we have been unable to perform abroad due to the pandemic, but that gave us an abundance of time to polish one of our pieces. Baru choreographed kemeljang ‧ so? by integrating performance and language. Everyone raised questions about combining these two seemingly conflicting elements, but the choreographer refused to give up and searched for a way to strike a balance between them.
The dancers sang, danced, and used sign language as they conveyed their emotions through dance. In this performance, they had to open their ears and hearts to multiple means of expression, and it was an enormous breakthrough for all of them. We have never performed a piece half-heartedly, and in this one we likewise spared no effort to share every second with the audience.
“Do that which is difficult:” such is the spirit of Tjimur Dance Theatre.
After more than a year of practice, I walked into the rehearsal room one day and saw the dancers. Suddenly it felt as if they weren’t just performing using sign language; rather, they seemed like people who truly relied on sign language in their daily lives. Watching the piece, I felt like I had walked into the world of the hearing impaired, and this world wasn’t sad, but full of joy. Suddenly, I understood. In the piece kemeljang (a Paiwan word meaning “to understand” or “to know”), what we want to explore is, “Do you really understand? Now that you do understand, what happens next? Is it possible for us to approach people who are different from ourselves?”
In this, our fifteenth year, we are like an adolescent who is full of passion and wishes to keep going forward, but fears that he isn’t good enough. To find ourselves practicing and perfecting kemeljang‧ so? at this time is as if the heavens saw our abilities and efforts and arranged it for us to create a very difficult piece to tell us that we are capable.
In kemeljang ‧ so?, I saw a level of confidence in Baru that I had never seen ever since he had returned to our tribe --- after coming back home and living in the tribe for thirteen years, he worked hard at understanding and listened well, and now Baru has found himself in his dance pieces. This seems to suggest that Tjimur Dance Theatre has also completed the stage of finding itself and is now in full operation. We no longer have to question our identity; we can concentrate on sharing the value of existence and passing it on to others.
Words from the Choreographer / Baru MADILJIN
In 2018, the dance theatre performed Varhung~ Heart to Heart at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the U.K. After watching our performance, Cesare Benedetti, who was the Art Director at Italy’s Festival of Silence (Festival del Silenzio), invited us to perform in Italy. Moreover, he wanted the lyrics of the part where an ancient ballad was sung to be interpreted by a local sign language translator. At that moment I thought, “Let’s leave the sign language to the dancers!”
At the end of 2019, three Italian artists came to our tribe to teach us Performative Sign Language in Italian to prepare us for the performance in Italy the next year. But then the pandemic struck, an unexpected development that impacted the piece in like fashion—for I began to think that it should become an independent piece; kemeljang ‧ so? had its beginnings here.
When I was a child, I went to the beach to play and water got into my ears. Suddenly, I couldn’t hear and my head buzzed. I cried, but to no avail. It was a momentary experience of being unable to hear. In the old-fashioned Charades-style games on TV variety shows, participants were stripped of verbal language and had to rely on the body to convey messages. This is also a form of communication. When choreographing kemeljang ‧ so?, I kept imagining a world where no one could hear, and what every silent day would be like.
Dance is sometimes abstract, and the body can be a symbol or suggestion, but sign language can’t be abstract. Sign language is a means of direct communication, a precise language in a soundless world. I searched for balance in between the two. In the eyes of the general audience, this piece would be a dance, but in the eyes of those who are deaf or hard of hearing, it would be a different representation full of messages that can be interpreted.
At last year’s Taiwan Dance Platform at the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, we performed a thirty-minute version of the piece and invited over a hundred guests who are hearing-impaired. After the performance, some of them cried—and told us they understood. This inspired me to expand the world of dance and make it encompass more. While Varhung~ Heart to Heart is about the revelations of the inner soul, kemeljang ‧ so? expands to explore what a different group of people want to express. Through dance, we invite the audience into the world of silence.
You understand, so now what? Do you really understand? What is your understanding?
In 2018, the dance theatre performed Varhung~ Heart to Heart at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the U.K. After watching our performance, Cesare Benedetti, who was the Art Director at Italy’s Festival of Silence (Festival del Silenzio), invited us to perform in Italy. Moreover, he wanted the lyrics of the part where an ancient ballad was sung to be interpreted by a local sign language translator. At that moment I thought, “Let’s leave the sign language to the dancers!”
At the end of 2019, three Italian artists came to our tribe to teach us Performative Sign Language in Italian to prepare us for the performance in Italy the next year. But then the pandemic struck, an unexpected development that impacted the piece in like fashion—for I began to think that it should become an independent piece; kemeljang ‧ so? had its beginnings here.
When I was a child, I went to the beach to play and water got into my ears. Suddenly, I couldn’t hear and my head buzzed. I cried, but to no avail. It was a momentary experience of being unable to hear. In the old-fashioned Charades-style games on TV variety shows, participants were stripped of verbal language and had to rely on the body to convey messages. This is also a form of communication. When choreographing kemeljang ‧ so?, I kept imagining a world where no one could hear, and what every silent day would be like.
Dance is sometimes abstract, and the body can be a symbol or suggestion, but sign language can’t be abstract. Sign language is a means of direct communication, a precise language in a soundless world. I searched for balance in between the two. In the eyes of the general audience, this piece would be a dance, but in the eyes of those who are deaf or hard of hearing, it would be a different representation full of messages that can be interpreted.
At last year’s Taiwan Dance Platform at the Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, we performed a thirty-minute version of the piece and invited over a hundred guests who are hearing-impaired. After the performance, some of them cried—and told us they understood. This inspired me to expand the world of dance and make it encompass more. While Varhung~ Heart to Heart is about the revelations of the inner soul, kemeljang ‧ so? expands to explore what a different group of people want to express. Through dance, we invite the audience into the world of silence.
You understand, so now what? Do you really understand? What is your understanding?
Event
2023 invited to perform in Let's Go to the Theatre organized by National Taichung Theatre, Taiwan
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2021 invited to perform in National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, Taiwan
Premiere in 2021
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2021 invited to perform in National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, Taiwan
Premiere in 2021
Production Team
Founder and Artistic Director | Ljuzem Madiljin
Dance Director and Choreographer | Baru Madiljin
Rehearsal Director and Performers | Ching-Hao Yang, Ljaucu Tapurakac
Performers | Tzu-En Meng, Sheng-Hsiang Chiang, AL Garcia, Shu-Syuan Kang
Costum Design | Baru Madiljin
Technical Coordinator and Lighting Designer| Yu-Cheng Lee
Portrait Photographer| Chang-Chih Chen
Main Visual Designer| Wen-De Chen
Graphic Photography｜Jia-Hua Chiu
Theatre Photography｜Pa Sa Si
Main Visual Design｜Wen-De Chen
Video Production Coordination｜Yu-Wen Li
Text | Yun-Jing Liao
Special Thanks｜International Sign language artistic consultant / Fattoria Vittadini
International Italian Sign Language Guidance/Art Consultant｜Riccardo Olivier, Cesare Benedetti, Nikita Lymar (Supported by Crossing the Sea)
Taiwan Sign Language Instructor / Art Consultant｜Li-Hua Su, Hao-Jun Lian, Ya-Li Wu, Xiao-Han Hong
Cooperative Hotel｜Just Sleep
Company Manager| Shu-Ting Chiu
Dance Director and Choreographer | Baru Madiljin
Rehearsal Director and Performers | Ching-Hao Yang, Ljaucu Tapurakac
Performers | Tzu-En Meng, Sheng-Hsiang Chiang, AL Garcia, Shu-Syuan Kang
Costum Design | Baru Madiljin
Technical Coordinator and Lighting Designer| Yu-Cheng Lee
Portrait Photographer| Chang-Chih Chen
Main Visual Designer| Wen-De Chen
Graphic Photography｜Jia-Hua Chiu
Theatre Photography｜Pa Sa Si
Main Visual Design｜Wen-De Chen
Video Production Coordination｜Yu-Wen Li
Text | Yun-Jing Liao
Special Thanks｜International Sign language artistic consultant / Fattoria Vittadini
International Italian Sign Language Guidance/Art Consultant｜Riccardo Olivier, Cesare Benedetti, Nikita Lymar (Supported by Crossing the Sea)
Taiwan Sign Language Instructor / Art Consultant｜Li-Hua Su, Hao-Jun Lian, Ya-Li Wu, Xiao-Han Hong
Cooperative Hotel｜Just Sleep
Company Manager| Shu-Ting Chiu