Hey! Lady, please look at me! —2018 NTCH Innovation Series
LIN Su-Lien
Date：2018.06.15
Venue : Experimental Theater, National Theater & Concert Hall
Comments on the Finalist
Lin Su-Lien comes from a background of formal dance training in Taiwan. Since 2014, she has started searching for the answer to the question: what can dance be like without the standardized aesthetics of the academic system? Hey! Lady, please look at me! serves as an important milestone in responding to this question. There are no distinctions between professionals and amateurs in the work; only “people” who have made their lives meaningful, be it an outstanding performer specializing in professional lighting design, a remarkable singer with a background in dancing, or a talented B-Boy working as a stage crew member wearing black. “People” is the highlight of Hey! Lady, please look at me! The work responds to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps with sacrificial rites of the Ghost Festival. However, Lin replaces traditional funeral ceremonies, religious rituals and mantra chanting with fragmented verbal expressions and riotous interactions to satirize the pathological positiveness in contemporary society. Mischievous humor interspersed in the performance forms a response to the paradigmatic dance aesthetics, rendering the work profound yet comical at the same time. The selection of music comprising of Mandarin, English and Taiwanese songs, together with the overall breathing rhythm of the work, shows the dynamic cultural forces that inform Lin’s works, which always exude agitating, multifarious energies that eventually converge into unique performances.
(Commentator: FAN Xiang-Jun)
Artwork Introduction
Created for the “Innovation Series” by National Theater and Concert Hall, Lin Su-Lien based this thirty-minute work on Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. The dance starts with the sacrificial scene featuring a young girl in red, who is forced to repeatedly dance until the last moment of her life. Then, Lin’s reflection on the world after death ensues. The story unfolds after the sacrificed girl encounters three men in the afterlife, who have also been sacrificed. The performance of three non-professional male dancers and one professional female dancer is mixed with numerous English songs and live music performance. The interaction between sounds, spoken words and physical movements create a work informed with dramatic elements and movements reminiscent of daily life. Repeated backdrops, a large deal of objects, a repressive mélange of spoken words and familiar songs collectively present the observations and questions about contemporary society as well as a poetic gaze into the cruelties in life.
About the Artist
LIN Su-Lien
Born in Miaoli, Taiwan, Lin Su-Lien has been dancing since the age of eight. A multi-talented art professional with a background in dancing, she is currently Deputy Head of Les Petites Choses Production. She used to have the idea of retiring from dancing, but collaborations with other artists revealed new and diverse possibilities of dancing to her. She was Assistant Director of the opening ceremony of the 29th Summer Universiade Taipei 2017. She has collaborated with theatre directors from Taiwan and abroad, and also performed in the works of various choreographers, among whom are Sunny Yang, Yu Yen-Fang, Chang Chien-Hao, Wang Yeu-Kwan, Chen Yi-En, Liu Yen-Cheng and so on. Her recent creative output is a dance series, entitled Invisible Program. The series includes Invisible, Amateurs, and No Man's Land, which are works co-created with non-professional dancers. Hey! Lady. Please, look at me was created in 2018, and Lin has continued creating new works afterwards. In recent years, Lin shifts her creative focus onto integrating dance with other art forms to develop new meanings and results, and the process of which has encouraged her to think about future exploration through cross-cultural collaboration.
Production Team
Choreography | LIN Su-lien
Performance |
HUNG Pei-yu, TAO Wei-jyun,CHEN Kuan-yu, CHUANG Chih-heng
Creation Consultant | LIN Ching-tien
Lightening Design | HO Ting-tsung
Stage Design | TUNG Yu-ting
Rehearsal Assistant | WU Chen-an, PAN Yu-hsun
Special Appearance | WU Chen-an, LIN Ching-tien, PAN Yu-hsun,
TSAI Cheng-han, TUNG Yu-ting, JEONG Zhi-long
Production Team PROJECT ZERO Performing Arts Management
Cinematographer &Film Editor One Work International Ltd
編舞家 林素蓮
1913年，俄國作曲家史特拉汶斯基的芭蕾舞劇《春之祭》在巴黎首演，舞劇描寫著春回大地之時的獻祭，被選中的少女在曙光初露之時成為祭品，重複跳舞直到死去。驚世駭俗作品在戰前歐陸石破天驚，一躍為經典。但當《春之祭》成為創作命題，原作裡的波濤洶湧，來到當代台灣編舞家手中，又會如何迸發意義？
2018年受邀於兩廳院「新點子舞展——微舞作」編舞的林素蓮，以此發想作品。她在日常觀察中提煉出與《春之祭》意義交集的詩意，用舞作向獻祭者說著：「小姐免驚。」
望向共時的混亂、犧牲與恐懼
林素蓮甫接到命題便有想法浮現。她無意重現劇目祭儀，想像起獻祭少女死後「發生什麼事情？」作品中少女在陰間遇見三名男子，發現他們也因獻祭到來。生前善惡、死後賞罰難以定義，雖樣貌各異，犧牲與恐懼是通同存在。
林素蓮認為舞作開頭隱含一切，後續只是將訴說之事一一打開。於是作品開始，觀眾看見一赤裸男子於音樂巨響中匍匐而入，另一人持手電筒向其照射，另兩人則在行進間為之穿上衣褲。簇擁中男子緩緩比出中指，隨後所有人跟隨，意象如蝸牛，是每個人的慢慢生活，也是對現況的憤怒抵抗，「說著：『去你媽的世界！』」下段，表演者在動作同時發出聲音，直到少女進入陰間，場上開始混亂：輓聯、收驚燈、電器生活用品、雜亂紛飛的垃圾與紙片、移動佈景、突然加入的工作人員，現代舞、街舞、談話、聲響，交雜以重金屬、搖滾樂⋯⋯情緒高漲，混亂四溢。接續一男獨舞呈現自身犧牲場景；尾聲，少女走出，伴奏下唱起一首首歌。
林素蓮用聲音構成作品的騷亂感，或她稱在動作、服裝之外的重要「線條」。現場播放及演奏／演唱之外，她加入許多動作動機下的語言或所謂「台詞」及碎念，試著找到與動作結合的音樂性，聲音與身體動作的界線動機一致，相輔相成。她繼之選擇道具，於演出過程配合表演動作產生聲響或噪音，這些聲音時而清晰時而模糊，即便如Bob Dylan〈Blowin’ in The Wind〉或Lou Reed〈Perfect Day〉等充滿隱喻而耳熟的英語歌曲，觀眾或許也僅能抓取歌詞關鍵；然而被清楚聆聽並非重點，「因為它只是『線條』。觀眾感受的模糊，是我刻意想製造的，就像現在生活，你想要找到什麼答案可是答案總尋不得。」林素蓮再讓表演者從頭到尾穿著鮮豔廉價的Polo衫、長襪短褲，到陰間還套上易破的透明雨衣，「像超級賽亞人身邊包裹的一圈靈氣」，她刻意不讓作品呈現精緻美感，與現時的資訊相像，便宜而啜手可得。
混亂喧雜不只存於末世，實是林素蓮的當下感知。科技世代無力深度感受時間，資訊超載下生命殘酷也能即時傳播，無限重複麻痺人心。「遠方很多戰爭，網路充斥報導，但他們正在苦難時，我們可能是吃下午茶時得知訊息、討論著那有多可怕。」彼方征戰方興，眼前且有日日困境，壓迫犧牲、抵抗恐懼以不同形式存在包圍，百年後必也輪迴重返，「我們都一樣，都在規矩裡面，必須遵從、無法停止。」於是，舞作最後唱著Miley Cyrus〈We can’t stop〉：「And we can't stop. And we won't stop.」，接以「我一個人跳舞，從清晨到日暮」，「我沒醉我沒醉，請你不用同情我」⋯⋯林素蓮稱《小姐免驚》為厭世之作，在喧鬧雜混後幽幽訴說著世道如常。只是諸眾皆苦，你我並不孤單，這也許是對眾獻祭者最好的告慰。
林素蓮補充，觀眾扮演作品重要元素。最末燈暗又亮起，精準間隔一分鐘，其實是默哀。「我們四場演出獲得兩種不同結果：一種燈亮起，觀眾鼓掌；另一種觀眾沒鼓掌。前者像是我們完成了獻祭，作品是獻給觀眾的祭品。⋯⋯沒有拍手的兩場，觀眾一樣是獻祭的角色，一同默哀。」
素人與專業的二分界線跳脫
《小姐免驚》接續林素蓮「邊緣人物計畫系列」與非專業舞者共同進行的創作，此次找來攝影師陳冠宇、燈光設計莊知恆、劇場編導陶維均，與擁有好嗓音的舞者洪佩瑜同台。林素蓮在直覺音樂選擇下，和四位表演者共同嘗試與組合方向與梳理動作。最初這系列來自對學院技巧的思考，經過幾個作品嘗試再到《小姐免驚》，她慢慢整理出自身觀點：「表演者在台上好不好看，創作者要付百分之九十的責任。我要怎樣讓他們發揮到最好？技巧、表演與外在條件都是工具，每個工具都只是元素。」她發現身體詩意的重要性超越專業與非專業之差，在尊重專業舞蹈訓練下，她想著「我及我們還可以怎麼跳舞，或是什麼也可以是舞？舞蹈還可以被什麼方式表現／發生？為什麼我們需要舞蹈？」專業與非專業的二元思考到此轉向，林素蓮的作品詮釋與表演概念邁入下階段，成為讓多元性展現並被觀看的平台。
「我曾想過不可能再跳舞，想要長久遠離舞蹈；但卻很幸運地在與其他藝術家合作的過程中，看到舞蹈的多種可能，也體認到我過去認為的不可能，都是無不可能的。」從非專業的肢體研究，進展到舞蹈如何與其他藝術形式揉和，發展新定義和結果，林素蓮持續享受多元刺激下的創作過程，也思考著下個研究主題。編創者同舞者、觀眾，專業同非專業，或都需乘載生命給予的複雜考驗，但終不能也不願停止。從八歲跳舞至今，林素蓮依舊感受舞蹈的珍貴啟蒙，來自舞蹈卻不受限舞蹈，不可能終將成為可能。
（採訪撰文／許祐綸）
