[中][ENG] 記衛武營「台灣舞蹈平台」舞蹈書寫工作坊 Dance Writing Workshops at Taiwan Dance Platform

一眾英文短篇評論寫作班的學員與導師Sanjoy Roy（右二）和蔡瑞伶（右三） Participants from English short review writing workshop, instructors Sanjoy Roy (second from right) and Stella Tsai (third from right);

圖片由衛武營國家藝術文化中心提供 Photo provided by National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

衛武營高雄國家藝術文化中心剛在10月開幕，我出席了其開幕季中的「台灣舞蹈平台」在11月7至11日期間舉辦了的兩個寫作工作坊，分別是教授中文藝評（Critique）的評論寫作工作坊，以及實戰英文短篇評論（Review）為主軸的創新書寫班。

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) opened in October. From 7 to 11 November, I joined two writing workshops organized by the Taiwan Dance Platform during Weiwuying’s opening season. The first one introduced the writing of arts critique in Chinese, while the second focused on a pragmatic approach to writing short reviews in English.

11月7至8日的中文評論寫作班由多位資深台灣藝術評論人授課——由林育世發起，並邀請了石志如、陳代樾、楊美英講課。寫作班的講座形式，課堂上討論了藝評寫作的架構、舞蹈的觀看角度、研讀寫作範例。兩天的課堂期間，花了不少時間觀看舞蹈演出節錄影片、畫作，並練習詳細描述作品中的內容。在聆聽其他二十位參加者描述各自視角所見的過程中，逐漸令觀察變得深化和細膩。

On 7 and 8 November, a group of seasoned Taiwanese Arts critics gave talks at the Chinese Critique workshop. Together with Yu-Shih Lin, the course curator, Chih-Ru Shih, Sean Chan, and Mei-Ying Yang were invited to give lectures. They talked about the structure of an arts critique and perspectives on dance through studying sample writings. We spent much time in the two-day course looking at dance video clips and drawings, practicing to describe the works’ content in detail. By listening to how 20 participants describe what they saw from their own perspectives, my observation towards the works became more vivid and refined.

其中石志如所帶領的動作描述練習特別令我深刻。此練習綜合了身體行動、眼睛觀察及以語言描述三種舞蹈書寫人的經驗實踐。她帶領一眾同學做兩個簡單的摘星星的動作，每人可以自選的動作決定「如何」摘星星，經過身體的感受，再以文字「客觀地」描述自己短短數秒的動作。而學員們的描述過程中，石志如協助學員將動作逐個拆解分析，並以「動詞」作為描述的重心，務求找到最能精闢地描述一個動作的動詞。除了動作描述的練習以外，楊美英透過特定場域表演（Site-Specific Performance）討論以舞蹈書寫台南人的文化身份，在課程的最後一節補上舞蹈書寫與社會連結這重要一環。

I was most impressed by the movement description exercise led by Shih. This exercise integrated three experiences of a dance writer - body action, visual observation and describing with language. Participants followed her guidance to make two easy “reach-for-the-stars” motions. Each participant could determine his/her own way of catching the star. After experiencing with our bodies, we tried to verbally describe their own short movement phrase “objectively”. During presentations, Shih facilitated the students to unpack and analyze the movements, then focusing on “verbs” when describing, aiming to find the most precise verb to describe a movement. Apart from exercises on movement description, Yang discussed site-specific performances to illustrate how dance can shape the cultural identity of Tainan people. As the last session of the course, Yang’s lecture complemented the course by connecting dance writing and the community.

隨後的便是實戰英文短篇評論為主軸的創新書寫班，由在英國《衛報》撰寫舞評、在Springback Magazine任創始編輯的Sanjoy Roy和台灣自由文字工作者蔡瑞伶出任導師及工作坊實習文章的編輯。兩位導師帶領共四位學員在「台灣舞蹈平台」期間一同觀賞共十三個舞蹈演出。每天看完演出後，學員即晚完成短篇的評論，並於翌日看新一輪演出前埋首討論文章。四天期間與學員和導師相處，除了有機會交換對演出和舞蹈節的觀察，亦進行了不少有關評論人與讀者的關係、中英文書寫的分別、以及評論人書寫時如何在「個人」和「作品」之間取得平衡的討論。雖然有時候小組內因語言翻譯上令溝通上有阻礙，但亦意外地在過程更釐清令一些對演出的觀察和對字詞的理解。在一個藝術節框架內的書寫工作坊，雖然沉澱時間有限，行程及課堂亦很緊逼，但此模式讓學員在演出前後與創作人、表演者傾談，同時亦有其他學員作為同行者，對於一個舞蹈書寫學習者幫助不少。

The English review writing workshop then followed, focusing on the pragmatic approach. The two course instructors - Sanjoy Roy, a dance critic for the Guardian and the founding editor of Springback Magazine in United Kingdom, and Stella Tsai, a freelance Taiwanese journalist - were also responsible for editing the writing coming out of the course. Together with four workshop participants, we watched 13 dance works from the Taiwan Dance Platform. Each day, the participants wrote their short dance reviews right after the show. On the next day, we sat together and discussed each other’s writing before going to the next show. During the four days, not only could I share my views towards shows and the festival, we also discussed the relationship between critics and readers, the differences between Chinese and English writing, and ways to balance between “personal views” and “the work itself” in a piece of dance writing. Although there were times when communication was hindered due to different languages used in the group, but the process of translation and interpretation brought about an unexpected outcome of clarifying and rethinking the meanings of words and phrases. Despite the shortage of time for reflection and a very tight schedule, this model of attaching writing workshops to an arts festival is beneficial to an emerging dance writer, as it provides opportunities to talk with creators and performers before and after the shows, while also interacting with fellow dance writing learners.

《彩虹的盡頭》The End of the Rainbow; 編舞Choreographer: 林宜瑾 I-Chin Lin;

圖片由衛武營國家藝術文化中心提供 Photo provided by National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

SPLIT; 編舞 Choreographer: 蔡博丞 Tsai Po-cheng;

圖片由衛武營國家藝術文化中心提供 Photo provided by National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Hydra; 編舞 Choreographer: Yuval Pick;

圖片由衛武營國家藝術文化中心提供 Photo provided by National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)