Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan Songs of the Wanderers

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CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE OF TAIWAN

Songs of the Wanderers

(List of International Performances) Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre, Georgia Tanzsommer Innsbruck, Austria Istana Budaya, KualaLumpur, Malaysia Dewan Sri Pinang, Pulau Penang, Malaysia Dresdner Musikfestspiele at HELLERAU, Dresden, Germany Dublin Dance Festival, Dublin, Ireland China Tour Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Wuhan National Center for Performing Arts, Beijing, China Ravenna Festival, Italy International Festival of Villa Adriana, Tivoli, Rome, Italy Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Moscow, Russia Melbourne Arts Center, Australia Brisbane Festival, Australia Athens Festival, Greece Tanec Praha Festival, Prague, Czech Republic Bogot Biannual Latin American Theatre Festival, Bogot, Colombia Teatro Alfa, So Paulo, Brazil Jacobs Pillow Festival, Massachusetts, USA American Dance Festival, North Carolina, USA Lucerne Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland Caracas International Theatre Festival, Caracas, Venezuela Next Wave Festival, New York, USA University of Texas-Austin Performing Arts Center, Texas, USA Lied Center Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA Lyon Biennale de la Danse, Lyon, France The Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, Illinois, USA George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, UK The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany Tour 25th Anniversary Festival, Pina Bausch Tanztheatre Wuppertal, Germany TollWood Festival, Munich, Germany Adelaide Festival, Adelaide, Australia University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, California, USA International Summer Theatre Festival, Hamburg, Germany Copenhagen International Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark Quartier Dete (Summer Festival), Paris, France The House of World Cultures, Berlin, Germany Bergen International Festival, Bergen, Norway AT&T Danstheatre, Den Haag, The Netherlands Cultural Centre, Hong Kong
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Oct 23-24, 2012 June 23-24, 2012 Feb 16-17, 2012 Feb 10, 2012 June 2-3, 2011 May 26, 2011 Apr. 8 - May 7, 2011 Apr. 1-2, 2011 June 27, 2010 June 22-23, 2010 June 7-9, 2007 July 26-29, 2006 July 20-22, 2006 June 12-13, 2005 June 2, 2005 Apr. 1-4, 2004 Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 2003 July 3-7, 2002 June 27-29, 2002 Sept. 6-7, 2001 April 7-9, 2001 Nov. 1-5, 2000 Oct. 22, 2000 Oct. 19, 2000 Sep. 21-24, 2000 Nov. 5-6, 1999 Oct. 30, 1999 Apr. 13-17, 1999 Feb. 27-Apr. 2, 1999 Oct. 18, 1998 July 1-5, 1998 March 6-8, 1998 Feb. 28, 1998 Feb. 25, 1998 Feb. 18-21, 1998 Aug. 15-17, 1997 Aug. 7-9, 1997 Aug. 1-4, 1997 June 6-7, 1997 May 27-28, 1997 Feb. 10-11, 1996 Nov. 14-15, 1995

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

Songs of the Wanderers

Choreography Music Lighting Design Set Design Costume Design Props Design Premiere Duration

LIN Hwai-min Georgian Folk Songs recorded by Rustavi Choir CHANG Tsan-tao Austin WANG Taurus WAH SZU Chien-hua YANG Cheng-yung November 4, 1994 at National Theater, Taipei, Taiwan 90 minutes with no intermission

There is no happiness for him who does not travel, Rohita! Thus we have heard. Living in the society of men, the best man becomes a sinner... Therefore, wander! The feet of the wanderer are like the flower, his soul is growing and reaping the fruit; and all his sins are destroyed by his fatigues in wandering. Therefore, wander! The fortune of him who is sitting, sits; it rises when he rises; it sleeps when he sleeps; it moves when he moves. Therefore, wander! -- The God Indra urges the life of the road upon a young man named Rohita in Aitareya Brahmana --

JOURNEY TO BODHGAYA
By Lin Hwai-min
I do not know when the name Bodhgaya first entered my mind. For a few years I wanted to go there badly, even if I didn't know what I would do once I got there. I only knew it was in Bodhgaya that Buddha attained his enlightenment under a bodhi tree. In the summer of 1994, when I finally had a few free days, I hurriedly booked an air ticket. Still I did not know why I had set my mind on going. Bodhgaya was a village with only a muddy track for access. Little shops and open-air stalls gathered around the compound of Mahabodhi Temple to form a market. Constructed in the sixth century, the Mahabodhi stupa, a stone structure, was 50 meters tall. Standing in the temple courtyard, it ascended towards the blue sky. To the back of the stupa stood a bodhi tree, a fourth generation descendent in 2,500 years; its trunk spreading into infinity, and its leaves and branches shielding over mortal souls. The Diamond Seat of Buddha sat beneath the tree; a fence had been set up around it. Monks and pilgrims of different nationalities sat on the ground outside the fence. Under the guidance of the monks, the pilgrims chanted Buddhist scriptures. Between the rising and falling of the chanting, one could hear birds twittering from near and afar. In the afternoon I would sit on the banks of the Neranjra River outside of the Temple compound and stare blankly at it. The water was muddy and seemed motionless. From time to time, a big bubble would break out and pop, to remind one of the turbulent life coursing underneath the smooth surface of the river. I suppose that the Neranjra river which Buddha saw would have been flowing in much the same way. It was in the grove of trees on the opposite shore that Prince Siddhartha engaged in six years of ascetic practice on a daily diet of sesame seeds and a grain of wheat, at last reducing himself to skin-and-bones before realizing that this consuming desire to be enlightened was the biggest obstacle to his enlightenment. So Prince Siddhartha accepted the offerings of a village maiden. He crossed the river to take his place in the diamond seat that destiny had prepared for him. I stood on the river bank and marveled at Buddha's determination to cross the river. To turn away from the world and become self-reliant, to live the life of a hermit and practice asceticism, is completion of the self. To receive, to accept another person's bodily warmth was for Buddha, at the moment of receiving, a return to the world of birth, old age, illness and death. Having crossed the river himself, Buddha would now guide humanity to cross it. The Agama Scripture tells us that, at the time of his nirvana, Buddha did not, as popular Buddhist mythology would have us believe, take leave of the world easily. He summoned his beloved disciple, Ananda, to give him detailed instructions on his cremation and the construction of the stupa. It was too much for Ananda to bear, and he ran into the woods to cry. Buddha heard him crying and called him back to his side and comforted him. There is infinite beauty within the beauty of nirvana the reluctance to leave, and the reluctance to let go. On the bank of the Neranjra River, I realized for the first time in my life that Buddha was an ordinary mortal who also endured human confusion and struggle. Out of his compassion, he practiced asceticism and meditation, and pointed out to us the path of salvation. I felt warmth and was filled with love and admiration for Buddha.
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I sat quietly under the bodhi tree, shoulder to shoulder with the monks. I opened my eyes, and saw sunlight coming from the top of the stupa through the branches to land directly on my forehead. My heart became full of joy; I felt a quietude that I had never experienced. Back in Taipei, I often remembered the cool bodhi tree, and the Neranjra River that ran quietly through time. Every day the dancers of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan meditated. I created Songs of the Wanderers with great ease, a work about practicing asceticism, the river's mildness, and the quest for quietude. As I review this piece of work from 1994, it feels as though I am studying an entry in my diary. The memory of the journey to Budhgaya causes my heart to be overcome with joy, which I hope can be shared with the audience of Songs of the Wanderers.

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT

SONGS OF THE WANDERERS

Visually stunning and exquisitely performed in deliberate slow motion; the audience jumped up to offer a cheering ovation. The New York Times The lighting and visual design in the work is exceptional and, together with the sound, suspend everyday perceptions of time and space: image after image of the dancers with their gnarled walking sticks caught in the side light, their outlines seared into the black backdrop; massive curtains of saffron rice pouring from the heavens; grand arcs of flung rice, floating then disappearing like fireworks in the sky. The architectures of these images are timeless and the work transcends its content to become a classic in the canon, a marker in theatrical experience, a work that bridges both Eastern and Western sensibilities. When the show ends, the audience remains, mesmerized by the slow raking of a spiral pathway in the rice, the end and another beginning. The Australian I had never seen such a fascinated audience in my entire life, an audience enthralled by the beauty and the spirituality of a show, so as to be staying on for another 25 minutes in the most reverent of silences after the curtain had closed and the light had come back on again. Le Figaro The most sublime works of art in any medium contain a unique marriage of the sensual and the spiritual. Think of Michelangelos sculpture of the Pieta Stravinskys score The Rite of Spring. Now, add to this list Songs of the Wanderers, a work of wild eroticism, contemplative mystery and ecstatic beauty presented this weekend by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. A 90-minute piece by the masterful choreographer Min Hwai-min performed by a company of 20 breathtakingly controlled dancers it was at once otherworldly and wholly visceral, weaving its spell with incomparable imagery and a dramatic power that encompassed the entire spectrum of sacred and profane existence. The Chicago Sun-Times The strongest movement comes from the monk who stands 90 minutes praying, bald-headed in white robes incessantly rained on with rice, which cascades in fountains over his head and folded hands. The image of the monk becomes a metaphor for an ideal that reaches from East to West, from Brahma into the Christian middle ages, supported by the Georgian chorus. Suddeutsche Zeitung

. . . so touching that one can not help crying . . . tears of joy -- ones heart nearly explodes from such a great theatrical experience one would assume that Georgian folk songs are a poor choice of music, but when its contemplative voice fills the hall, one can only feel as though the music had been made especially for this dance. Aftenposten Lins troupe is a fine ensemble and his choreography is both accomplished and gripping, rigorous and committed, and not a little beautiful too Lins dancers meditate before a performance and you can see why: the focus and control required is formidable At the end a curtain of rice erupts in a golden explosion of ecstasy. It is a brilliant theatrical moment which bedazzles our imagination. The Times The work moves the audience to tears. . . . A rousing standing ovation. Bergens Tidende Whatever words of praise one can say about the originality, the plastic beauty, the human strength and, at the same time, the spiritual delicateness of this show, will always be too few. JL, Lisbon Lins dancers have been exquisitely schooled, mentally and physically. They can hold a sculpted position so long they seem to have been turned into sculpted stone, or move as slowly as melting wax. Saint Paul Pioneer Express It is the spirit behind the dance and production values that makes this work so special. It is reflected in the structure and finely wrought, committed performances to make Songs of the Wanderers thought-provoking and memorable. The Sydney Morning Herald One of the most surprising events of the [Dublin] festival to partner Grand Canal Theatre with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, and last week saw a record audience of 1,800 people for a single contemporary dance show. Looking out on this modern edge of the city, reclaimed and regenerated, it brought back the importance of that first festival in 2002, when Merce Cunningham and his company majestically inhabited the stage of the Abbey Theatre and brought dance centre-stage to the city. The Irish Times

CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE OF TAIWAN

The virtuosity of Cloud Gate dancers has made critics ask: when has one ever seen a company with such magical and beautiful bodies? and confess that they possess a control and articulation that verge on the superhuman. These are performers who can make stillness every bit as eloquent as animation. In fact, they have the power to change your metabolism. Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance in China. In 1973, choreographer Lin Hwai-min adopted this classical name for the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese speaking community. Its 24 dancers receive trainings of meditation, Qi Gong, an ancient form of breathing exercise, internal martial arts, modern dance, ballet, and calligraphy. Through Lin Hwai-mins choreographies the company transforms ancient aesthetics into thrilling modern celebration of motion. Cloud Gate has toured extensively with frequent engagements at the Next Wave Festival in New York, the Sadler's Wells Theatre and Barbican Centre in London, the Moscow Chekhov International Theatre Festival, and the Internationales Tanzfest NRW directed by Pina Bausch.

LIN HWAI-MIN
Founder and Artistic Director
Honouring Lin Hwai-min with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the jury of the International Movimentos Dance Prize, Germany, calls Lin a foremost innovator of dance and that Lin Hwai-min ranks amongst artists of the century such as William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Birgit Cullberg. A writer-turned choreographer, Lin has published books of fiction and essay, and holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Writers Workshop, University of Iowa. Lin Hwai-min studied dance in Taiwan and New York. In 1973, he founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, and Cloud Gate 2 in 1999. Heralded as the most important choreographer in Asia, Lin often draws his inspiration from traditional Asian culture and aesthetics to create original works with contemporary resonance, which have made Dance Europe acclaim: No company in the world dances like Cloud Gate. It presents a distinct and mature Chinese choreographic language. The importance of this evolution in Asian dance is no less profound than the impact of Forsythes Ballet Frankfurt on European classical ballet. Among the honours Lin Hwai-min has received are honorary doctorates from five universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan National Award for Arts, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Award, the award for 'Best Choreographer' at the Lyon Biennial Festival and the 'Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters' from the French Ministry of Culture. In 2005, he was celebrated by Time Magazine as one of the Asias Heroes. Lin has been invited by the "Rolex Mentor and Protge Initiative to serve as the mentor of dance for 2012/2013. He will mentor a young choreographer selected from candidates recommended by a panel of dance experts around the world.
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WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT

CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE OF TAIWAN

No company in the world dances like Cloud Gate. It presents a distinct and mature Chinese choreographic language. The importance of this evolution in Asian dance is no less profound than the impact of Forsythes Ballett Frankfurt on European classical ballet. Dance Europe When you're talking about Cloud Gate, magic is not too strong a word. Time Out Asias leading contemporary dance theatre. The Times One of the finest dance companies in the world. The Globe and Mail Lin Hwai-min has succeeded brilliantly in fusing dance techniques and theatrical concepts from the East and the West. The New York Times An extraordinarily exciting, brutishly physical contemporary dance company. San Francisco Examiner The best dance group of this years Spoleto Festival, or of any other year was the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. Sun Herald [The dancers] have such stringent, elastic control that they can suddenly blast upwards into high, light jumps that for a moment you fancy might not come down again. The grace of it is, in a way, balletic, but its evasion of the norms of gravity, its total fluidity, suggests that there is a new book of the human dancing body waiting to be written with tai chi training. The Daily Telegraph Dancers of the Cloud Gate company possess a control and articulation that verge on the superhuman . . . These are performers who can make stillness every bit as eloquent as animation. Chicago Sun Times What dancers! Their assurance, fluidity and discipline are simply breathtaking. The mixture of traditional Asian gesture, martial arts-inspired leaps, kicks and slaps and the audible breath of the dancers creates a mesmerizing language before our eyes. Durham News & Observer Cloud Gate leaves you sitting breathlessly on the edge of your chair. San Jose Mercury News This company gets to you. In New York, . . . as well as in Herbst, the audience gave the company a rousing standing ovation. San Francisco Chronicle Judged by the most critical eye of the dance world in the West, the most surprising miracle is its technical achievement. Ballet Info So touching that one can not help crying . . . tears of joy ones heart nearly explodes from such a great theatrical experience. Aftenposten Wholly irresistible!
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