Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集) have developed a reputation in recent years for beautiful, quiet, meditative pieces. Lin is hoping that his latest work will blow that reputation to smithereens.
“You are not going to recognize Cloud Gate — well, not really — but it's very stunning, very clear cut, very black and white,” Lin said, referring to Wind Shadow, which has its world premiere next Saturday.
“We hope the audience will have some kind of catharsis when they come out of the theater,” he said.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LIN CHEN-HSIANG, CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATER
The “we” Lin is referring to is internationally renowned visual artist Cai Guoquing (蔡國強) and himself, who have teamed up to produce this fall's new work.
Working on a project for Cloud Gate was not what China-born, New York-based Cai had in mind when he visited Lin here in Taipei in the spring of 2005. He was hoping to recruit Lin to the creative team he was putting together to develop the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing.
Lin's schedule, however, was already fully booked through 2008, which meant that he would not be able to attend many of the team's meetings.
“Well, I'm not going anywhere, so can you come here?” Lin said he asked Cai.
Lin asked Cai to provide concepts for a new work and serve as the visual director, and the artist agreed.
“Cai gave me about 120 ideas, all one-liners, somehow I picked this one and I picked that one, I don't know why,” Lin said.
Wind Shadow is a stark black and white production. Against a white backdrop, on a white slope, some black-clad dancers portray humans and some play their shadows. Sometimes the humans become the shadows. People drag shadows forward, while shadows rise to take control of people. Above the dancers' heads there are flying kites and flapping flags, all white and all kept aloft and in movement by a battalion of fans in the wings.
Gradually black flags replace the white flags. Suddenly the mood shifts, as what seems likes miles of black silk fall from above like a malignant waterfall. The silk keeps falling until time seems to stop.
“Black waterfalls of fabric — it's something that I have longed to do for years — huge sheets of black silk — 400 yards, three of them. The first two are very slow, you think they will never end,” Lin said. “The third is very fast, you don't know whether you have really seen it or not.”
The world turns to black.
“Dancers in black on a white stage, very beautiful,” he said. “There's no story, no dance, we move very slowly ... slow movement like moving video installations.”
“Black snow, black rainbow, black hole — it's visually stunning,” he said. “So pure!”
The choreography is set against a soundscape that mixes the sound of blood moving through veins, an unborn baby's murmurs and a dentists' drill and against a backdrop of Cai's art and video works, many created especially for this production. The images are projected through the billowy flags onto the backdrop: explosions, fire, smoke, distorted faces and burnt dancing bodies, black clouds and a black rainbow.
Lin, like most artists, picks up inspiration everywhere — from his daily life, his travels, the people he meets. Just as the sound of crickets in Chiang Mai, Thailand, influenced the soundtrack for one of his recent pieces, a much more mundane trip gave him ideas for Wind Shadow.
“The music is very physical — I went for a physical last spring and saw how my blood moved, like a tide,” Lin said. “We have a heartbeat, a baby breathing inside the womb, the sound of a dentist drill — so very human but also very different.”
“We put a recorder through a scanning machine in a hospital to get a spacey feeling, of a volume of air,” he said. “The whole piece starts with a body in a hospital.”
The humanness of the soundtrack provides a stark contrast to Cai's images; his explosions. Lin sounded almost disappointed that Cloud Gate couldn't actually do the blasts live on stage.
“There's a black rainbow — an explosion of just black smoke — bang, bang, bang, like that — we have men with white flags doing the movement,” he said, talking in his usual mile-a-minute pace.
“The theater becomes very disturbing,” he said. “Then there is black snow, then the black hole and the dancers disappear one by one.”
Lin said that he and Cai couldn't help feeling pessimistic, given what's been happening in the world in recent years.
“For me, with Taiwan, there's no way out — for him, 9/11, because he is a New York resident. He had a show in a museum, where he shot a black cloud every day hovering over the East Side of New York,” Lin said. “We're very concerned about how the world has become — Iraq, Palestine, Russia, Georgia, and now North Korea — so forgive us for being so heavy but I promise it will be very beautiful.”
In the final scene, the dancers are trapped in a web of black snowflakes, and eventually disappear one by one, sucked into a giant black hole.
“The dancers are wonderful — it takes Cloud Gate dancers to pull it [the piece] off,” he said. “It's great — no sugar in the whole piece.”
However, Cloud Gate fans can rest assured that it is not all doom and gloom this season. Despite Lin's no-sugar claim, there is some sweetness and light — in the second week's program, which Lin described as a sampling of the Cloud Gate's tomorrow and its yesterday.
Tale of the White Serpent & Unforgettable Moments of Cloud Gate is like a gala performance program, Lin said, describing the individual pieces as “precious jewels in a necklace.”
“We've been doing so much black and white recently so this will be very colorful,” he said.
The earliest piece dates from 1975 (White Serpent), the latest from 2003 (an extract from Cursive 2). The other works on the program are: Crossing the Black Water, an excerpt from 1978's Legacy; Milky Way (1979); Requiem (1989); Homage to the God of the Clouds, an extract from 1993's Nine Songs; and an excerpt from Moon Water (1998).
Lin said this season is a preview of what audiences can expect next year, and perhaps even after that; just one long season in the fall in Taiwan with a new piece and a gala program, because the company will be traveling abroad so much.
“We have 50 performances abroad, including Moscow and Brazil, next year,” he said.
When told that was a good thing, because it proved how well-known and liked Cloud Gate is, Lin just laughed and said he wished this had happened 10 years ago, when he was younger.
“We're doing five and seven week tours — its insane! It's easy for the presenters but harder on the dancers, [their] bodies and sanity. By the fifth week you are just ready to give up. You never see anything but the theaters,” he said.
So see Cloud Gate when you can now, because they won't be around much next year. However, tickets have been selling fast, as usual, and the premiere of Wind Shadow is already sold out, as is the following Saturday night's show (Dec. 2).
At the end of next month Cloud Gate will be taking White Serpent and Wind Shadow down south, with the White Serpent scheduled for Taichung's Chungshan Hall on Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, and performances of Wind Shadow at the Kaohsiung Cultural Center on Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, and the Chiayi Performing Arts Center on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30.
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