Bulareyaung pagarlava biography
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10 Questions With…Bulareyaung Pagarlava
Today we have 10 Questions With… choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava…
1. How did you become involved in dance?
When I was 12, I saw a performance by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, though I didn’t know it was Cloud Gate until some years later. It was so inspiring that I made up my mind to become a dancer.
2. What are you currently doing in dance?
Mainly choreographing.
3. Can you explain your approach to choreography?
I don’t create work for the sake of creation. I am not a movement-oriented choreographer interested in analyzing physical moment.
All my choreography reflects my thoughts and emotion. Choreography is a medium of expression. It is my way of connecting to the world.
4. What role does the music play in your choreography?
In my work, music plays a vital role. It offers a room for imagination. In my earlier works, choreography began after I found my music. So the works were often built upo
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Dancing All the Way Home
Reacting to society
BDC has many faces, from the manlig valor of Qaciljay and the quirky appeal of Colors to the troupe members singing madly at the Taiwan Pasiwali Festival, using familiar old songs to energize the atmosphere at the event. When asked which of his works is most representative of the company, Bulareyaung tilts his head, at a loss for an answer. “Our performers dance, and sing, and also speak and act, so we’re hard to define. We seem to combine all the performing arts. The most important thing is that we never vända our back on traditional culture.” One can learn something about BDC from each individual work, but from any given del av helhet one can only learn a part of who they are.
By his own account, in the past Bulareyaung never paid attention to social issues, and still less to indigenous issues. He felt that as an artist his greatest contribution to kultur was simply to produce good works. But since returning
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Encouraging Aboriginal youth to dream big
Choreographer Bulareyaung Pagarlava is on a major voyage of discovery — going back to find what he lost and looking for ways to encourage Aboriginal youngsters to pursue their dreams
By Diane Baker / Staff reporter
Bulareyaung (Bula) Pagarlava is a man who is has been straddling disparate cultures for decades. Now he is on a journey into his past, seeking to reconnect with the county he grew up in, with his Aboriginal culture, while forging connections between the contemporary dance world that made his career and the world he left behind to do so.
Bula is also ansträngande to run his own modern dance company with all the administrative, choreographic, public relations and travel requirements that involves — from Taitung.
Born 42 years ago in the Paiwan community of Jialan Village (嘉蘭), Taitung County, the last child in the family, Bula left home as a young teen for high school in Kaohsiung. He then studied at Taipei