“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” —Alan Watts Grab Your Mallet by Austin Buchholtz Watching U-Theatre perform their mixture of dancing, drumming, martial arts, acting, chanting in "Meeting with Bodhisattva" is like removing the face of a clock to lose oneself in its ticks, chimes, and gongs—only to realize the coils and springs are human. The single-minded mastery of their crafts renders drum beats and gestures transparent to transcendence, as in the following moments.

• Huang Chih-Chun unmasked churns the air with his two fists, separates them, then slowly raises the forefinger of his clenched left hand upward into the clenched right hand—the Buddhist vajra (knowledge-fist) mudra of six elements, to teach the unity of all (earth, water, fire, air, and metal) with spiritual consciousness.
• Such quiet, small, and slow details are contrasted with booming, large, and lightening quick moves such as when Huang holds his staff high, taps the drum case, beats it, whirls around and stands utterly still, a strong diagonal line extending from his head down his arm and staff to the floor.
• To the sound of gongs, the presence of the group swells from a darkened back corner while in deliberate and super slow procession wearing blood-red robes, now bathed in golden light.
• Two invisible warriors surprise Huang by removing his staff from his hands before Huang strikes without it, realizing its absence.
• The audience is sitting in such rapt attention, during quiet moments I notice the sound of my scribbling and turning of note-pad pages.
• Many drums are brought onto stage, one by one, played by individuals who then quickly exit. Before long, there are a good handful of drums clumped together. Huang steps over them to begin a riveting solo first on the row of smaller ones, then a strong sermon on the largest drum, mallets flying.
• Huang becomes one of the group in the spellbinding section called "Sword of Wisdom" when five warriors drum and dance with uncanny accuracy, egos checkmated.
• At the end, all alight the stage behind Huang who is repeating his fist stirring. They all begin to whirl, like Dervishes, but with both arms raised, all at the same speed, and chant. Far past the point when a normal mortal would fall down dizzy, the group unexpectedly stops spinning—all except Huang—and lay face down, arms extended forward, the most humble of all bows. Huang continues to pivot as the lights dim.
• Even when they take a bow for the audience, they do so slowly, straight-faced, all together. Their smiles only blossom one by one as they receive bouquets from Paul and Walter.

At dinner with the company the next night, I sit next to performer Lynee who says that she does not miss Taiwan at all, that they feel comfortable in Portland, and are very hungry after the performances. I ask her about her initial training with U-Theatre. She says that other than running with the guys along mountain paths, her first day consisted of keeping time while tapping a drum with one hand for an hour at a time. She was then allowed to try alternating hands for another hour, and so on. I ask her about famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee of Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger fame. She cries every time she sees Brokeback and tells me the company got to meet "Lee Ang" once in New York, describing him as thoughtful, talking and moving deliberately—clearly a master craftsman. After everyone else leaves, I chat briefly with friendly Sound Engineer Meng-Yu Lin who reveals that all sound in the performance is produced by live musicians even if behind the curtain, except a little of the singing. Later, I learn in my research that in Buddhism, a bodhisattva is the living essence of perfect knowledge, or an enlightened person who chooses to help others attain enlightenment rather than enter nirvana. The closest being to a bodhisattva in the Christian cosmology would be an activist angel, a transformational minister, a Mother Theresa. Would you evolve if you met a bodhisattva? That is the question explored in a movie called "The Drummer" about the son of a Hong Kong gangster who escapes assassination by hiding in the mountains of Taiwan only to find himself among a spiritual community of drummers. U-Theatre performs in the movie, "the first film from Hong Kong and Taiwan to be selected for competition by the Sundance Film Festival." I haven't seen it yet, but after I do see it I hope the neighbors won't mind me banging on pots and pans with pencils and pens. P.S. More on Buddhist teaching hand gestures (mudras) here. *** Austin Buchholtz is a graphic designer, writer, and certified instructor of Ballroom and Latin dance. Austin was White Bird's Director of Audience Services from August 2001 to December 2003.

Photos by Chris Roesing/White Bird.