Pick up the phone now and buy a ticket to Cloud Gate Dance Theater's latest production, Smoke. As of press time, limited seats were available for the evenings of Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 only, all other shows are sold out and waiting lists are growing longer. Why? Cloud Gate's reputation is enough to fill the house if the troupe so much as walks across the stage, but in Smoke troupe founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) has created not only a visually stunning piece, but an emotionally wrenching one as well.
Smoke, which opens tonight and runs through Dec. 1 at the National Theater, is set to music composed by Russia's Alfred Schnittke and, in Schnittke, Lin has found a composer to match his own aesthetic sensibilities. Schnittke's composition is dissonant, at times violent. He is best known for his "polystylism" whereby he fuses styles and genres from various epochs -- not unlike Lin, who has mastered a fusion of modern dance and Chinese opera movement. The result is a piece that engages and challenges its audience rather than lulls them. His penchant for stacatto and surprise has provided Lin with an opportunity to articulate his choreographic language in ways that none of his previous productions have. Led by principal dancer Lee Ching-chun (李靜君), the troupe moves sharply and with definition and commitment. Few other dance companies can elicit as strong an emotional response from an audience.
An unlikely principal performer in the production is set designer Austin Wang's (王孟超) tree. Standing stage right and rising into the fly loft, the bent and leafless tree's tentacular branches mimic a dancer's every move in still-life. It provides more than a setpiece; it lifts the dance off the stage and into the rafters.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CLOUD GATE
Equally impressive are Sammy Wang's (王世信) costumes that drape beautifully off the dancers' bodies and flow in stark contrast to the crispness of the dance. Chang tsan-tao's (張贊桃) lighting design is also a joy inasmuch as you don't notice it until he wants you to -- in the second act, his use of seven squares of light on an otherwise black stage provides a horrifying sight when the dancers leap from the darkness into the light.
All told, Smoke is a gem, but it is not without its flaws: Austin Wang's use of projections on the cyclorama are an annoyance when they come to life in the second act; movies seemingly filmed out of a car window only detract from the dance. His choice of paintings to project -- images that juxtapose everyday objects with incompatible environments -- can leave audience members wondering why there are sea turtles swimming on the back wall. More nit-pickingly, the noise from a fan used to blow foliage from the tree spoils a poignant moment.
But whatever you do, don't let the noise from a fan stop you from seeing this wonderful production -- provided tickets haven't sold out in the time it's taken you to read this.
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