Bulareyaung Dance Company: tiaen tiamen Episode 2

National Theater, Taipei
April 18, 2025

While 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of Bulareyaung Dance Company (布拉瑞揚舞團), and despite the company having had many successful productions, and the dancers having grown enormously in every respect, director-choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava (布拉瑞揚帕格勒法) says he realised recently that he had never seen them dance a duet.

That is put right in tiaen tiamen Episode 2 (I/We, 我/我們), which sees choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava guide the audience through the restlessness of youth, where growth is not so much about one’s self as about how to relate to others and the world around us. It’s a continuation of the discussion of life and being began in Episode 1 in 2023.

The work is all about relationships, between individuals or an individual and the group. Some appear to be intense, some light, some about the strong bonds of brotherhood, some more personally deeper. Precise meaning is left to the audience to decide, however. Or you can just enjoy the dance for its movement, or the visuals, or both.

Different sections show different interpretations of relationships. A scene suggests looking for someone or something, or perhaps reflecting and others and the environment. Two solos side-by-side, one dancer lit in green, one in red, before the pair come together is another example of the work’s theme in action. It’s also rather good! The pair are seen as individuals but who then come together. Yet again, ‘I/We’ is not just a title but writ large through the work.

And the dancers (aulu tjibulangan, giljigiljaw taruzaljum, Kwonduwa, Siyang Sawawan, Kaniw Panay, talai, Kacaw Panay and guest Khóo Tîng-uí) are very good indeed. All give very committed performances, showing great awareness and bonds as they relate to each other. Best of all, they have that all-important knack of reaching out to the audience.

In the duets, bodies and limbs feed around one another in conversation, although contact is surprisingly rare. Bulareyaung knows the importance of changes in dynamic. While fast-paced sections are especially good, they are highlighted by the equally impressive slower moments.

There is a lot to like although I was left wanting to see more of the performers and less of the visual effects. I particularly found myself asking why one duet is conducted in silhouette behind the scrim, buried beneath projections. As neat as the effect is, and as full of feeling as the dance appears, it made it difficult to relate to and felt like effect for effect’s sake.

Choreography should always be a coming together of movement, music and design. But while the stage is frequently covered in graphic designer reretan pavavalijung’s (磊勒丹．巴瓦瓦隆) striking totemic imagery, the flats, the back screen, the floor and above, and as playful and expressive of energy as they are, it does at times feel too much. Sometimes the work feels all about the staging with the busy projections in particular taking over, overpowering everything else.

I was also left uncertain about the final effect, a billowing sail-like, tent-like structure hoisted aloft, which has an uncanny spectral presence. I feel sure it should be telling me something, but unsure what. It is impressive in its way though, even if it does take a while to set up.

Under music director ABAO (aljenljeng tjaluvie, 阿爆, 阿仍仍), tiaen tiamen Episode 2 continues the electronic compositions of rising artist Wenna (溫娜, known professionally as Ń7ä) that evoke a sense of time and space, while also incorporating ‘gathering’ and ‘chanting’.

The former is an aural language custom-made for each dancer by sound designer Linz (靈芝) using sounds are drawn from everyday life as well as the dancers’ own self-perceptions. Although I struggled to identify differences, I am assured each dancer moves with a sound uniquely their own.

‘Chanting,’ the most instinctive form of indigenous musical expression, is self-explanatory. Kivi, a Golden Melody Award nominee for Best Indigenous Singer, was outstanding, her voice of the present but recalling the past. The overall soundtrack works well, the different elements combining easily.

tiaen tiamen Episode 2 left me with mixed feelings, wanting to see more, but also frustrated. It certainly has some terrific moments but I exited with the nagging feeling that its whole is less than the sum of its parts. Maybe it just tries too hard.