Cursive III is modern dance at its best. It is also Lin Hwai-min's (林懷民) most impressive work in years. It is dance stripped down to the bare essentials.
Yes, the scrolls (six all told) were stunning and watching the flow of the ink as the scrolls were lowered and raised was interesting. But in the end, they were just just the backdrop, it was the dancers that riveted your attention.
The piece is organic, as cliched as that sounds. It's about nature -- the sounds of nature provide much of the score -- about meditation and letting go, about explosive bursts of energy and a more liquid flowing of energy.
The score begins with silence, and then ever so softly you hear the hum of the cicadas. It ends with cicadas before fading into silence. In between there is the rush of the wind, waves breaking on a pebbled beach, single drops of water and gentle rains, foghorns and temple bells -- and the percussive music made by a dancer's exhalations and foot slaps against the floor.
The are 12 movements in Cursive III. It begins with a furious burst of energy as 10 dancers leap and hurl themselves into the air. The piece then flows from solos to duets to ensemble sets.
In the last movement, the ensemble moves together almost as a single creature -- a sea anemone is what came to mind. The dancers are clustered together, feet and legs grounded to the floor, forming a single unit, while their arms and hands curve and float through the air just as an anemone's tentacles wave with the currents.
Then the group breaks up into individuals, who roll and slide across the stage until one by one they exit, leaving one dancer, curving, weaving, bending and flowing in silence -- and the final scroll comes down.
It is fitting the piece ends with Chou Chang-ning (周章佞) because she was outstanding, from her first solo at the beginning of the second movement, to her solo at the end.
Her sinuous grace makes even the most complicated maneuver look not just effortless but perfectly natural.
Wen Ching-ching's (溫璟靜) authority in her solo was remarkable while the stunning images created in the seventh movement linger in the mind: six women, silhouetted behind the scrolls, echoing the movements of Chiu I-wen (邱怡文).
"At the end of Cursive, I realized that it was just the beginning of a long journey," Lin said in an interview last week, speaking of the training in taichi and calligraphy Cloud Gate's dancers had begun to study.
It has been a journey worth the effort. Cursive III is a reminder that Cloud Gate is not just Taiwan's best known dance troupe, or the leading Asian modern dance company -- it is a paid-up member of the league of world-class companies, able to hold its own against the best that London, New York or Frankfurt have to offer.
Cloud Gate is performing a Cursive III at the National Theater through Sunday afternoon.
The company goes on the road on weekends next month in Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung and finishes up in Chiayi on Christmas Day.
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