A JOURNEY IN A TAIWANESE FAMILY
The Keyman
By Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company
Choreography: Luo Wen-Jinn/Length: 50 minutes
From July 8th to July 31th at 15:40 PM/ Avignon Off 2011
Théâtre de la condition des soies 13 rue de la croix – 84000 Avignon/ Tel : 04 32 74 16 49
The Keyman is the latest creation of the Taiwanese Scarecrow Contemporary Dance Company and is based on a true story. The young art director and choreographer, Wen-Jinn Luo, native of Tainan, Taiwan historical capital, wished to present for her second coming to Avignon an entertaining dance performance. However, while she was working with another Taiwanese dancer, the latter suddenly made a nerves break down. The dancer has become unrecognizable: her mental state, weakened by a painful past, abruptly changed her behavior. Wen-Jinn learned later the reasons; upset and shocked by the revelations of the dancer – suffering throughout her youth of verbal violence from her family-, she decided to question the Taiwanese education and the apparently normal relationships in a traditional Taiwanese family. She focuses her attention on the hidden face of these relations and on the dark side of each member constituting a Taiwanese family.
Inspired by a sentence extracted from Kafka’s diary (August 21st , 1913), “now I am at home surrounded by the dearest and most lovable family members, but I feel more stranger than a stranger”, she wanted to deal with this painful and delicate subject through the medium of contemporary dance. Beyond any realism, she invites the audience to observe, as the keyman she embodies, the daily life of a Taiwanese family: the father, indifferent and childish, refuses to take his paternal responsibilities, trying to escape constantly from the yoke of his wife; the mother, compulsively dedicated to her duty, tries her best to give a good education to her children, submitting them to her will, without showing any love towards them; the sisters hate and love each other at the same time; and the little girl, the main character of this creation, bullied by her parents and sisters, found refuge under the table and in her mind. In her show, she choices to highlight the unselfconfident and unsecure feeling experimented by the young daughter. The latter is a victim of her family insecure and self-doubting mood; each of them is both executioners and victims of the weight of Taiwanese tradition and education. In Taiwanese Family, duty and work replace love.
So, the young choreographer has opted for a sober and minimalist stage design: table and white chairs. The characters wear dark costumes -except in the first scenes: the mother has a shimmering dress and one of the sisters, a yellow one. The lights, oscillating between livid white and deep red colors, and the creaking electronic sounds give a dark atmosphere to the show. All the elements of the creation intended to show out what is behind the appearance of an ordinary family, revealing the dark side of the characters, their disturbing attitude to each other that will push the little girl to feel totally non-existing and inconsistent. There is no need of physical violence; psychological violence alone is enough to annihilate an individual – both his body and soul: that is what condemns this show by presenting characters with lifeless faces. It may tend to prevent the audience to get into empathy with the characters, but it reveals itself to be a clever way to do it: the body expression of the dancers, their repetitive movements ranging crescendo, the figures their bodies draw express this deep and unconscious sorrow and tearing of each character. Each dancer – their execution of the choreography is beautiful and very professional – embody their characters in the very accurate manner. One can only be touched by the story of this little girl, a moving and cruel story, alas so true and so symptomatic of Taiwanese society.
Indeed, the show deals with the Taiwanese need to feel safe showed out by hyperactivity in work and hobbies in everyday life and by a weird commitment in relationships where love becomes secondary as long as the other takes care of us. It reveals a deep fear of expressing their own selves and will; they hide themselves behind exaggerated politeness and measure for everything. This is so deeply rooted inside Taiwanese society and individuals that it leads their apprehension of the world and human relationships. It partly appears to be the consequences of the traditional education in Taiwan but also of Taiwan History as far as Taiwan used to be governed by a military regime, after the 50 years’ Japanese occupation. The regime used to forbid even the teaching of their own language, the Taiwanese, and the people had no rights to express their own view. The show is on this point very relevant and one can regret that it was only presented in Huashan Creative Park and not at the CKS Experimental Theatre.
We advice the audience to have a glance at this creation even if it can puzzle an audience which is not accustomed to contemporary dance and its codes, even if it needs some more emotional violence in the dancing expression and breaks in the rhythm. Nevertheless, there is no need to be an expert to appreciate the quality of the work and understand the purpose of creation and its universal questioning. Indeed, beyond the question of Taiwanese family and society– who is the keyman in the family who can save the little girl?-, it queries human nature and our inner contradictions: who is the keyman who can save ourselves from our inner struggles? In echo to Schopenhauer’s philosophy -“there is no truly secure moment for human being”, the choreographer questions human sub consciousness. Without giving any answer, the show tries to find out some of the reasons – social or intrinsic to human nature- that lead us to these contradictory feelings – fear, uncertainty, loneliness, feeling of no-belonging…-. One can find keys to be aware of and may be overcome these so human contradictions that often lead us to a chaotic way of being and had created a so indifferent and tricky society. The show will tour in the Theatre de la condition des Soies, Avignon, France, from July 8th to July 31th at 15:40 PM. Diane Vandermolina
More: http://jinndance.myweb.hinet.net/scdc2009e.htm
《鑰匙 人‧The Keyman》到底是誰？
Who is The Keyman ?
‧演出製作群
團長Company director：羅文君Wen-Chun Lo
藝術總監Artistic Director／編舞Choreographer：羅文瑾Wen-jinn Luo
表演Performers：羅文瑾Wen-Jinn Luo、李佩珊Pei-shan Li、林羿汎Yi-fan Lin、許惠婷Hui-ting Hsu、蘇鈺婷Yu-ting Sue
燈光設計Lighting Designer：關雲翔Yun-hsiang Kuan
舞台監督Stage Manager：邱劉亞婷Ya-ting Chiuliu
服裝設計Costume Designer：趙虹惠Hung-hui Chao
音樂作曲Music Composers：王東昇Tung-shen Wang、郭世勛Lighthead、林姆斯基-高沙可夫Rimsky-Korsakov
劇照攝影Photographer：陳長志Chang-chih Chen
平面設計Graphic Designer：陳文德Winder Chen
Picture 1: copyright diane vandermolina
Pictures 2 and 3 : copyright Scarecrow contmeporary dance company
