Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Dance Consortium presents
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Moon Water
The Lowry, Fri 2 & Sat 3 May 2008
Press night: Fri 2 May, 8pm
The Lowry’s Lyric stage will be flooded to create a stunning work of art as part of Moon Water, performed by the first ever contemporary dance company from a Chinese-speaking community.
Set to movements from Bach’s Suites for Solo Cello, Moon Water is based on the eastern practice of Tai Chi. This gives a natural rhythm and a visible pulse from the energy of breathing which propels one action smoothly towards the next.
The production is minimal and beautiful with simple circles of design and movement, identical white silk costumes for men and women, and a watery black set which opens up to a panoply of mirrors. Eventually the stage floor becomes a huge mirror reflecting not only dancing bodies but also the patterns of the white brush strokes of the set.
According to legend, Cloud Gate is the name for the oldest known dance in China, a ritual which dates back some 5,000 years. In 1973 Artistic Director LIN Hwai Min adopted this classical name when he founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. The company has gone on to become renowned for delivering spellbinding, spiritual performances which confidently blend Eastern and Western styles.
The title Moon Water derives from the Buddhist proverb ’Flowers in a mirror and a moon on the water are both elusive’ and a description of the ideal state of a tai-chi practitioner: ‘Energy flows as water, while the spirit shines as the moon’.
“Moon Water is a dream of a show, one of the most ravishing things I’ve seen in a theatre, an experience of beauty” The Daily Telegraph
Posted on Thursday, 10 April 2008 under Press Theatre Press