雲門舞集 一個流動跳躍的臺灣符號

NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan — Most people in Taiwan are probably aware of the country’s pre-eminent performance group, Cloud Gate Dance Theater, even if they have no interest in modern dance.

臺灣新北市——大多數臺灣人就算對現代舞沒有任何興趣，可能也會知道這裏最傑出的表演藝術團：雲門舞集。

Board a bus or a subway here, and you may see images of the troupe’s dancers emblazoned on the sides. Visit the popular Tamsui district and you may catch a glimpse of the company’s gleaming new $22 million home, which opened in April. If you travel on China Airlines, Taiwan’s flagship carrier, you may even fly on the Cloud Gate Liveried Aircraft, adorned with dancers’ likenesses. The airline unveiled it last year, saying the troupe represented the “pinnacle of Taiwan culture.”

大巴或地鐵上，車廂兩側裝點着雲門舞者們的形象。來到熱門的淡水區，便可以看到這個劇團四月啓用、耗資2200萬美元的亮麗新劇場。如果乘坐檯灣最大的中華航空公司的飛機，甚至可以搭乘“雲門彩繪機”，飛機上裝點着舞者們的形象。這架飛機去年開始投入運營，航空公司稱，該舞團代表了“臺灣文化的佼佼者”。

Founded in 1973, Cloud Gate was Taiwan’s first professional dance company. Forty-two years later, it has become a roving, bounding symbol of this island. On Wednesday, it will open the annual Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the United States premiere of a 2013 work, “Rice.” The visit, with performances through Saturday, will be its sixth to the academy, and its first stop on a tour that will include performances in Los Angeles (January) and Washington (February). The company moves on to Paris in the spring.

雲門舞集成立於1973年，是臺灣第一個職業舞團。42年後，它成了與這個島嶼密不可分的流動符號。一年中有三分之一的時間，它都在世界各地巡演，星期三它將在一年一度的“下一波藝術節”(Next Wave Featival)演出，在布魯克林音樂學院獻上2013年創作的《稻禾》，長度持續整晚。這是該舞團第六次訪問布魯克林音樂學院，也是它此次美國巡演的第一站，之後舞團還將於明年一月在洛杉磯演出，於明年二月在華盛頓演出，並於春天去往巴黎。

Promoting Taiwan’s image abroad is a responsibility that Cloud Gate’s founder, artistic director and chief choreographer, Lin Hwai-Min, 68, does not take lightly.

雲門舞集的創始人、藝術總監兼首席編舞林懷民今年68歲，他將提升臺灣的海外形象視爲重任。

“He’s a very public figure,” said Yatin Lin (no relation), a professor of dance studies at Taipei National University of the Arts. “Because of the political situation with mainland China, it’s very difficult for our political leaders to be active abroad, so many people see him as not just an artist but as a kind of cultural ambassador for Taiwan.”

“他是重要的公衆人物，”國立臺北藝術大學舞蹈研究教授林雅婷（與林懷民無親戚關係）說。“因爲與中國大陸的政治形勢，我們的政治領導人很難在海外積極開展活動，所以很多人認爲他不僅僅是藝術家，也是臺灣的某種文化大使。”

This month, that commitment was on display as the choreographer marched into the rehearsal theater at the company’s new complex, clad in his signature uniform (black T-shirt, black pants) and brandishing a black backpack and a pack of cigarettes. While he settled at a table facing the stage, the company’s 22 dancers readied themselves for their first full run-through of “Rice” in a month.

本月，這位舞蹈家來到舞團新劇場的排練場，親身演示了一下這種責任心。他穿着自己的招牌制服——黑T恤，黑褲子，手上是黑色揹包和一包香菸。他坐在一張桌子上，面對舞臺，舞團的22名舞者正在準備在一個月內第一次全面串演一遍他創作的《稻禾》。

As the music — a compilation of Hakka folk songs, drumming and Western classical music — began, a lone dancer strode out holding a long, quivering rattan stick. In the next 70 minutes, the dancers stamped, leapt and folded and unfolded their bodies in a demonstration of Cloud Gate’s hybrid aesthetic, which combines Western classical dance techniques with Eastern “rounded” movements that draw on martial arts and tai chi. Missing from the run-through was the production’s backdrop, a sumptuous video filmed on location over a cycle of rice cultivation in Chihshang in southeastern Taiwan.

配樂響起——是客家民謠、古典和西方交響樂的結合——一個孤獨的舞者大步走上舞臺，手中是一支長長的，顫顫巍巍的藤杖。在接下來的70分鐘裏，舞者們頓足、跳躍、收縮和伸展身體，展現雲門的融合美學，它結合了西方古典舞技巧與東方的“圓”運動，這需要舞者進行特別的訓練，諸如武術和太極。串演中沒有背景，那是一段豐富的視頻，內容是臺灣西南部的池上鄉，稻米從生長到收穫的全過程。

Mr. Lin sat mostly silent, scribbling notes and only intermittently shouting (“Don’t rush, don’t rush!” and “Breathe!”). After the dancers took their final, choreographed bows, he stood and went through his notes, working with individuals on minor tweaks. The rehearsal had gone well and now the dancers just needed to focus on taking care of their bodies for the coming season, he told them later as they sat around him on the stage, stretching and massaging their muscles with foam rollers.

大多數時候，林懷民靜靜地坐着，隨手做着筆記，只是偶爾才叫喊幾句，諸如“別急，別急！”和“呼吸！”舞者跳完最後一段，按照設計的舞蹈動作鞠躬時，他站起身來繼續做筆記，和有小問題的人進行交流。後來舞者們在舞臺上圍着他坐成一圈，用泡沫軸伸展身體，按摩肌肉，他告訴大家，排練很順利，現在他們只需要好好注意身體，迎接即將到來的演出季。

Later, in the company’s offices, Mr. Lin talked about the obligations he felt toward the dancers and society.

後來，在舞團的辦公室裏，林懷民談起自己對舞者們乃至整個社會的使命感。

“I often remind the dancers that when they are onstage, they are often the only Taiwanese people that a lot of people get to see that are actually labeled as Taiwanese,” he said.

“我經常提醒舞者們，當他們在舞臺上的時候，他們就是很多人所能見到的僅有的，被貼上‘臺灣人’標籤的臺灣人，”他說。“每當我看着他們在舞臺上的時候，我都真心喜愛他們，我簡直愛慕他們。因爲突然之間，臺灣人就顯得那樣自信、那樣健康、那樣優雅。在五六十年代成長起來的我們身上就沒有這種東西。”

Much has changed since Mr. Lin was born in Taiwan in 1947. Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang’s National Revolutionary Army fled here in 1949 after losing the civil war to Mao’s Chinese Communists. The Kuomintang ruled Taiwan with an authoritarian hand for decades until 1996, when Taiwanese voters elected their president for the first time. Taiwan has been considered a democracy ever since (and may elect its first female president in January), but the island remains a disputed territory.

林懷民於1947年出生在臺灣，自那以後發生了很大變化。1949年，蔣介石與他的國民革命軍在內戰中敗給了毛澤東的中國共產黨，於是逃來臺灣。國民黨以獨裁手段統治臺灣數十年，直至1996年，臺灣選民第一次票選出自己的總統。自那以後，臺灣被視爲民主政權（一月還有可能選出首位女總統），但是這個島仍然屬於爭議領土。

Growing up as the oldest of five children, Mr. Lin nurtured multiple passions, for politics, writing and dance. Only years later, while a student at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, did he decide to pursue choreography. He had spent two summers in New York studying dance at the Martha Graham School, and after completing his degree at Iowa he returned to Taiwan, and soon started Cloud Gate.

林懷民是五個兄弟姐妹中的老大，他興趣廣泛，對政治、寫作和舞蹈都有深深的熱情。幾年後，他到愛荷華大學的作家學習班學習，決心學習編舞。他花了兩個暑假，在紐約的瑪莎·格雷厄姆學校(Martha Graham School)學舞蹈，修完愛荷華的學位之後，他回到臺灣，不久後創立了雲門。

The company’s birth came just two years after what Mr. Lin, like many other Taiwanese, sees as a defining moment in the nation’s recent political history: the 1971 resolution that displaced the government in Taipei as the representative of China at the United Nations in favor of the government in Beijing.

舞團誕生兩年前，林懷民和衆多臺灣人一起見證了臺灣近代政治歷史上的決定性時刻：1971年，聯合國以北京政府取代臺北政府，作爲中國代表。

“When I started the company I said, ‘Composed by Chinese, choreographed by Chinese, danced by Chinese, for a Chinese audience,’ ” said Mr. Lin, whose family has lived in Taiwan for generations. “Then Taiwan was kicked out of the U.N. and all of a sudden I had to figure out who I was.”

“剛剛創立舞團時我說，‘中國人作曲、中國人編舞、中國人跳給中國觀衆，’”數代定居臺灣的林懷民說，“然後臺灣就被趕出聯合國，突然之間，我要想清楚自己是誰。”

The event inspired “Legacy” (1978), which portrayed the early history of Taiwan. It was followed by such works as “Songs of the Wanderers,” “Moon Water” and the “Cursive” trilogy.

這段經歷成爲了《薪傳》(1978)的靈感來源，它展現了臺灣的早年曆史，以及它的第一批開拓者。其後舞團還推出了《流浪者之歌》、《水月》和《行草》三部曲。

Reviews of Cloud Gate’s performances in the United States have been mixed. Critics have lauded the company's East-meets-West approach, with Anna Kisselgoff writing in The New York Times in 2003 that “Moon Water” was a “work unlike any other.” But Alastair Macaulay of The Times wrote in 2011 that the works were “repetitive” and called “Water Stains on the Wall” “devoid of lightness and humor.”

在美國，對雲門的表演評價不一。評論家們讚美它的東西方結合方式，2003年，安娜·基塞格夫(Anna Kisselgoff)爲《紐約時報》撰文，稱《水月》是“與衆不同的傑作”，然而2011年，阿拉斯泰爾·麥考利(Alastair Macaulay)說雲門的作品“囉嗦”，說《屋漏痕》“缺乏輕快和幽默的氣息”。

As the company’s stature grew, so too did the modern dance scene in Taiwan.

隨着舞團的名氣日益增長，現代舞在臺灣也有了長足發展。

“Before Cloud Gate, there wasn’t even such thing as a wuzhe,” said Ping Heng, 57, the founder and artistic director of Dance Forum Taipei, using the term for dancer. “Before, people thought dancing was something you could do in school, but it wasn’t something worthy of being a profession. They just called dancers ‘tiaowu de ren,’ ” literally, people who dance.

“在雲門舞集之前，（臺灣）根本沒有所謂‘舞者’一說，”臺北舞蹈空間舞團的創始人兼藝術總監，57歲的平珩說。“以前，人們覺得舞蹈是可以在學校裏跳跳的東西，但並不覺得它值得成爲職業。他們只是管舞者叫‘跳舞的人’。”

Lin Lee-Chen, 65, the founder and artistic director of the Legend Lin Dance Theater in Taipei, said, “The dance scene in Taiwan today is very diverse,” with dance companies “of all sizes and styles.”

臺北無垢舞蹈劇場的創始人兼藝術總監林麗珍說，“如今臺灣的舞蹈場景非常多樣化，有很多規模不一，風格各異的舞團。”

When asked about his possible retirement, Mr. Lin of Cloud Gate was reluctant to comment. But he acknowledged that the company’s new complex, which he said would allow his troupe and other dance and theatrical ventures to perpetuate the “Cloud Gate energy,” would make it easier for him to step away.

被問到何時退休時，林懷民不太願意回答。但他承認，舞團的新劇場讓其他舞蹈和戲劇團體也可以傳承“雲門精神”，而不僅僅是服務他自己的舞團，因此他要退下來就變得容易得多。

Still, “I don’t want any statues,” he said. “I’m a Buddhist. I think everything is just illusory, especially for dancers.

但是，“我不想樹立任何雕像，”他說。“我信佛，我覺得一切都是幻影，特別是對於舞者們來說。”

“We know that dance happens, but it also vanishes when it happens,” he said. “All we are creating is air. We are giving society a different air, that’s all.”

“我們知道舞蹈發生了，但它在發生的同時就在消失。我們創造的只是一種氛圍。你給這個社會帶來另一種氛圍，這就夠了。”