Bulareyaung Pagarlava is a Taiwanese Choreographer.  Bulareyaung Pagarlava is from the Paiwan tribe in Eastern Taiwan’s Taitung County, and a former member of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. 

Pagarlava received his BFA from Taipei National University of the Arts and held his sole debut concert.  Pagarlava was soon acknowledged as an ingenious and enthusiastic dancer and choreographer. In the same year, Taiwan’s Dance Magazine named him as one of the Brightest Stars on Stage. Upon graduating from TNUA, Bulareyaung joined Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan as a soloist.

His first work, Flesh, was presented at the 2nd Asian Young Choreographer’s Workshop in 1995 and officially premiered in 1996 at Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s autumn performances of Helen Lai and Generation X. Flesh was also presented at Hong Kong International Dance Festival in 1998. Pagarlava received the Performing Arts Fellowship from Asian Cultural Council to advance his dance studies in New York. From 2000, Pagarlava was invited to return to Taiwan by Lin Hwai-Min, the artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance and toured with the company around the world. Pagarlava was also invited to be the guest choreographer for Cloud Gate 2 upon its founding in 2000. His commissioned work with Cloud Gate 2 included Passage, UMA, Lily, Flirtation, and Game@combat.com. His first full-evening choreography, Single Room, premiered in the 2002 Eslite Basement Festival.

In July 2004, Pagarlava left his career in New York for Cloud Gate 2 to be their first resident choreographer. His work during this period included Monday 2:10PM, Gloaming, and Foreseen. In 2006, Artistic Director Lin Hwai-Min of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre commissioned Pagarlava to produce the piece Formosa, the Island Beautiful, which was created with a Taiwanese aboriginal singer Kimbo Hu.

Pagarlava was invited to Fang-Yi Sheu’s residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2007 and created 37 Arts, which debuted in Taiwan in spring 2008 and received extraordinary success. He participated in the International Choreographer’s Residency Program of American Dance Festival in June 2008 and later created Song V set to Philip Glass’ music and debuted at Vail International Dance Festival. An excerpt of his lyrical work Single Room was invited to be part of fall for Dance Festival in New York in September 2008. In May 2009, Martha Graham Dance Company commissioned Pagarlava and premiered the work Pagarlava’s version of Lamentation Variation in New York City; Pagarlava continued the project in Taiwan and debuted Lamentat Taipei Arts Festival 2009. Additionally, Pagarlava’s work was performed at Macao Cultural Center and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2009. At WOMADelaide 2010, Pagarlava presented Single Room 2010—an extended version from 2008; his work 37Arts and Lament were also invited to perform at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Now Pagarlava has been invited by the New York-based Martha Graham Dance Company to do a companion piece to “Deaths and Entrances” for the troupe’s 85th anniversary celebrations.  “Deaths and Entrances” will be shown at The Rose Theater in Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on March 16th and 19th 2011.

Bio Source from: http://missrosen.wordpress.com/

During AsianInNY’s interview with Pagarlava, he mentioned that right after these 2 showings at Rose Theater in NY, he will return to Taiwan with more work right away to participate and perform with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Then his goal this year as an international choreographer is to finally return home and back to his roots with Paiwan tribe to contribute his time to help the people there and to document his life back home and then eventually to reach out to all 13 tribes in Taiwan.  He believes this is his calling and time to give back!

Videos from our interview: youtube.com/AsianInNY