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A mid-summer night’s dance

By Diane Baker
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jul 11, 2008, Page 13

PERFORMANCE NOTES: What: Cloud Gate 2, Oculus When: Tomorrow at 7:45pm Where: National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall Plaza, Taipei City Tickets: Free admission

An annual rite of passage for many Taipei residents is descending on the vast tiled plaza at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s (雲門舞集) mid-summer outdoor performance. What could be better than enjoying the country’s preeminent performing arts troupe under the stars, just you and 9,999 or more of your closest friends and neighbors? That the show is free is just icing on the cake. This is what summer should all be about.

Cloud Gate dancers will take to the stage in the plaza again tomorrow night, as part of the Cathay Life Arts Festival, starting at 7:30pm. This year, however, the honors go to the young dancers of the company’s second troupe, Cloud Gate 2, who will be reprising the late Taiwanese choreographer Wu Kuo-chu’s (伍國柱) masterpiece, Oculus (斷章).

The troupe’s performance of this 70-minute piece made it one of the 15 finalists in the 6th Taishin Arts Awards (第六屆台新藝術獎) earlier this year.

They first performed the piece in the spring of 2007, as part of a double bill at the National Theater with women from the main company, who were in Akram Khan’s Lost Shadows.

It is almost impossible to watch Oculus and not think of what might have been, for its creator died of leukemia just as he was making a name for himself as a choreographer. He had been diagnosed with the disease in 2004, only months after becoming artistic director of Germany’s Staatstheater Kassel Dance Company.

Cloud Gate founder and artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) established CG2 in 1999 to foster young choreographers and dancers and provide education and outreach programs for schools and communities throughout the country. Under the leadership of the troupe’s late director, Lo Man-fei (羅曼菲), Wu was one of those young choreographers tapped to create works for CG2.

Lin has described Oculus a landmark work, a meditation on the human situation. He also appreciated Wu’s sensitivity to music. Lin said he planned to keep Oculus in CG2’s repertoire, both as a way of keeping Wu’s memory alive and as an inspiration to would-be choreographers of what they might be able to achieve.

Oculus explores the very human desire for love and acceptance. Wu’s unique choreographic language is a mixed bag of tics, flat-footed shuffles and scurrying, hunched shoulders, clasped hands and awkward leaps — it is not the graceful, airy movements so often thought of as dance. Wu’s movements, like Lin’s, are more firmly rooted in the earth and draw energy from it, even as he appeals to the heavens. He set a frenetic pace for the dancers, interspersed with moments of stark stillness. The 12 sections are divided into carefully structured solos, duets and ensemble work.

The standout in last year’s shows was CG2 veteran Pan Chieh-yin (潘潔尹), whose solo opens Oculus. But the troupe as a whole really shines in this piece.

There will be screens set up in the plaza to ensure that those in the back will be able to see the action, but even though the show doesn’t begin until 7:30pm, if you want a good seat, plan on getting there a couple of hours early. Given that the Cloud Gate companies usually sell out their indoor performances, their free shows attract upwards of 10,000 or more spectators.

One caveat to parents — if you will be offended by having your young ones seeing bare breasts, take the children to see Kung Fu Panda instead. They will probably enjoy it more, and the grownups in the plaza will appreciate not hearing kids shouting that there are people dancing in just in their underwear.

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