Cheng Tsung-lung (鄭宗龍) recently premiered Send in a Cloud, the artistic director’s second piece since he took the helm of Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集) in 2020 from founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民). And judging by the Taipei performance, he’s living up to Lin’s legacy.
Its Chinese title, Xia (霞), evokes a panorama of changing colors across the horizon, which Cloudgate has brought to life on stage.
Cheng says the performance was inspired by the bustling streets of Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), where he grew up, and his experimentation with hip-hop dance moves in this new work adds a new sense of
“The pandemic was an alert, reminding us to reflect on whether we are on the right path. With the cancellation of our performances, our busy daily schedules were replaced with back-up plans. My dancers and I had more time to truly slow down and create. We took second thoughts on things we were accustomed to: does this need to be changed? How can we change it? We prepared, trained our bodies more delicately and quietly, and thus explored the true nature of the art form of dance. The world is evolving towards a more digital era, which is very good. However, we should also recognise our bodies and emotions more deeply and thoroughly in order to remain true to ourselves.”