Press Release: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan at Sadler's Wells, 21 - 27 February

[Jan McNulty]

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

Nine Songs / Rice                                                                                                           UK PREMIERE

Friday 21 - Thursday 27 February

Tickets: £12 - £38

Ticket office: 0844 412 4000 www.sadlerswells.com

 

Phenomenally acclaimed both at home and on its international tours, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan comes to Sadler’s Wells with two stunning works - Nine Songs and the UK Premiere of Rice, a Sadler’s Wells co-production, from 21 - 27 February 2014.

 

Directed by Lin Hwai-min, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan was the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese speaking community, and recently celebrated its 40^th anniversary. Cloud Gate last performed at Sadler’s Wells in 2011. The company is known for transforming ancient aesthetics into thrillingly original performances that draw on diverse disciplines, and for visually spectacular sets.

 

Based on a series of classical Chinese poems by Qu Yuan, Nine Songs (1993) is one of the company’s most celebrated works, drawing on ancient imagery and sensibilities to create a thoroughly contemporary piece in which distant and recent pasts collide. Received to great acclaim across the globe, the dance reflects the cycles of nature, echoing the rich verses found in the original poetic text.

 

Rice is a Sadler’s Wells commission that was created to celebrate Cloud Gate’s 40th anniversary and is inspired by the landscape and story of Chihshang in the East Rift Valley of Taiwan. Featuring folksongs in Hakka, the oldest among the existing Chinese dialects, operatic arias from the West and beautiful projections, Rice is a stunning, thought-provoking piece.

 

Lin Hwai-min studied Chinese opera movement in his native Taiwan, modern dance in New York and classical court dance in Japan and Korea. He founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in 1973.

 

A two-time winner of the National Award for Arts in Taiwan, Lin Hwai-min holds honorary doctorates from six universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Among the international honours received by Lin are the John D.Rockefeller 3rd Award, New York, the Joyce Award of Chicago, the Ramon Magsaysay Award - the ‘Nobel Prize of Asia’, - Best Choreographer at Lyon Biennial Festival and Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture. He was celebrated by Time magazine as one of Asia’s Heroes in 2005. In 2009, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Movimentos Dance Prize, Germany.

 

Since 2000, Lin Hwai-min has also been serving as the Artistic Director of “Novel Dance Series,” introducing internationally renowned groups and artists to dance lovers in Taiwan, including Jérôme Bel, Akram Khan, Emanuel Gat, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui.

 

Lin Hwai-min was recently awarded the highest honour from Taiwan's President Ma Ying Jeou: the First Rank Order of Brilliant Star with Special Grand Cordon. He is the second artist, after film director Ang Lee, to have been bestowed the honour.

 

“When you're talking about Cloud Gate, magic is not too strong a word” Time Out

 

 

The Monument Trust supports co-productions and new commissions at Sadler's Wells

 

Pre-show Director's Conversation with Lin Hwai-min and Alistair Spalding (BSL-interpreted): Thursday 27 February, 6pm - 6.45pm in the Rosebery Room, £4