day 52: meeting, planning, and preparing

the calender in the office
to the left, a samba dancer costume tomas designed for his dragon float

i've been spending most of my time meeting, planning, and preparing. I'm a bit anxious to get to the doing part, we only have 28 days until the big day. We've been here for about two weeks and what we have is a few floats that have just started to been built and conceptual drafts of the pageant. i'm nervous because I know when it comes, it will come hard and fast. But none-the-less, "Ji-yo!" (Keep going!)

here is a taste of my current work load, which is not that terrible in comparison to others here: cover 5 shifts of public workshop time (which are between 2-3hours), during that time teach mask/costume making or help make whatever people dream up, create 2-3 masks samples for the public workshops, also teach a little samba dancing at the public workshop (really), create model and template for Shiou Fong Elementary, make sketches for Chung-Yi Elementary (costumes for 60 samba dancers and puppet to go with the seed theme) and sketch ideas for a big float to represent "India" for 16 Punjabi Dancers (i'm having a rough time with this ethically). And on average I get a new Parade group every other day and after Tuesday I will begin making objects for the Pageant.

oh my my.

Pageant of Hope: Sketches

I am the director of Scene 6: Greedy and Scene 7: Destroy. Due today is a written proposal for the scenes, a title and sketches. The pageant was written by Inchi, who works at Dream Community and it is our task to interpret it and realize it. It is about hope and can be simplified as the story of Taiwan, which tells the journey from birth to death and then rebirth. It begins with a volcanic eruption that leaves a seed, it grows into an island and flower, an orchid. Animals and then people who are on the island discover the flower. Then other "people from somewhere else" discover the flower, name it and then fight over it. Then the "people from somewhere else" win and want to change it, the flower dies in the process, the "people who lived on the island first" cry. Then the "people who lived their first" call the upon the king of the sun and they are told to go to the end of the earth and retrieve the fire. After they get the fire, by using the rainbow, the flower is revived and everyone celebrates.

Based on the idea's we've tossed around, I think this pageant will look very different. There is talk, of course if the budget is approved, for a gigantic stage in the shape of a giant sun with rays that are ramps, hydraulic levels for the stage, a crane for acrobats, fireworks, fire dancers and more. The pageant field is one block long and the idea is it will be in the round.

Below are my sketches for my proposal: "Machine of Destruction." For the most part, we've interpreted this story to be about colonization and that the story of Taiwan is a story that has repeated itself since the beginning of time. I'm thrilled considering i'v been using these themes in my own work back in Philly. The artists directing the previous scene, Ben & Jessie, are excited that the "people from somewhere else" are robots. Jiving on that, I've envisioned the robots as this capitalistic machine that conquer, change what exists in their own image and leave to conquer the next island. My scene ends with the "people who where their first" becoming audience to their flower turning into a robot, of course during the robot dance. When the robots leave they cry and each carry fallen flower dancer.

But as I said, this is a proposal. The next step is for Leonson and Elena, the pageant co-directors, to take our proposals and present to us the final draft. Then we can finally start.

Parade Group: Siou Fong Elementry

Organization: Siou Fong Elementry
Group: 4th - 6th Grade; 60 kids in latin marching band and 20 latin dancers
Assignment: Design and make a template for costume in a latin style and incorporate the element "seed" which represents hope, the theme for this year. 80 children will make the costume under their teachers instruction and my guidence. They will have 10 hours of class time to make it.

day 49: 32 days to go

an unflattering photo of everyone but certainly captures the feeling of today, an unexpected 8 hour pageant meeting. the main contributing factors of this occurrence was translation, the lacking of structure and facilitation. but despite that, we got stuff done: laid out a framework for the pageant, each artist was assigned a section, and we figured out our next steps. we have a very tall glass to fill before the big day. we also met the other co-director of the Pageant, leonson, he is behind me in the green shirt. he is from Sun Son Theater and they have been highly spoken about here: http://www.sunsontheater.com.tw/. i'm excited about working with him and Elena as co-directors.

i found myself today experiencing moments of inspiration from my comrades and struggle with the process. i found it difficult it witness such inefficiency of time and energy, but it I am not in my a place to do anything to change that. i am here and I must embrace flexibility in order for me to survive the next 32 days. i need to remind myself why I am here, get everything I can from this and as Kristi says, "remember that this is fun."

day 48: absolute gorgeousness

yesterday was our day off and went to Jin Shan, golden mountain, to relax at the hot springs. to get there we had a little hike up the mountain, including this bridge over the river


up in the mountain and tucked away inside, was this little paradise with waterfalls and flowing water into a series of pools that were hot and cold.


i found myself getting lost with my body emeresed in the hot pools and looking up towards the fog rolling through the surrounding mountains. it was perfect. if I got too hot, i took a little break on the rocks and the light drizzly rain cooled me off.


afterwards we went to the restaurant owned by the mother of one of our hosts. as we ate the unbelievably delicious food (that kept coming even after I thought I was full) this was our view. in the back ground is the river that we hiked along on our way up the mountain.


top row: ashein (host), patti, agun, kristi, jessi, tan thun (host)
botton row: me, eleana, amy
*I don't know the correct spellings of the names in Mandarin

yesterday was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, overwhelmingly stunning.

day 47 + 46: a whirlwind of a weekend

here is the public workshop side to our outdoor studio. not pictured here to the right and back is where we are making floats. it was open for the first time this weekend from -10AM-12PM, 2-5PM, and 7-10PM. on weekdays it's open from are from 7-10PM.

in reflection of the past few days, i am astonished of how much has happened. it's been jam-packed with working or being anxious about working but also some really good hanging out with the other artists here. it seems that we have made an effort to make fun a priority. like thursday night, we all went over to my apartment (which i like to call "discotheque jean-paul." since jean-paul is from France and also my flatmate that has been away the past month) listened to music, drank some alcohol and everyone got a fabulous hair cut. sunday night we had a dance party in the puppet theater, a fair well for jake, that included theater games and spontaneous choreography. just imagine a room with over a dozen wacky puppeteers and theater folks. Then last night was laid back, we had samba lesson with Jake that included learning the basics of one specific form of drumming and sang along with songs that we all knew . . . there were about 4 madonna songs AND dolly parton's "9-5," i'm not kidding. then afterwards was the first session of "show + tell," where we shared stories, music and images of the work we do back home. all these little bits have kept a big smile on my face the past few days. i've been able to get a glimmer of each person and appreciating them for who they are. it's certainly collective because we had this big pageant meeting today and you could feel the camaraderie in the room. it left me feeling that the task at hand was more possible and for that, I am overwhelmingly thankful.