Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, founded in 1973, was the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese speaking community. It has made frequent visits to Sadler’s Wells over the last two decades.
It celebrates its 50th anniversary with a revival of artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung’s Lunar Halo, which premiered in 2019. The sparkling ring round the moon predicts an impending doom and forebodes a time of considerable change.
Cloud Gate takes a meditative yet dynamic approach to dance. The dancers are trained in t’ai chi (slow stretching movement), martial arts and meditation. They interact with each other, in pairs, groups or as an ensemble, as well as with multiple large LED panels that are filled with fluidity moving shapes, colours and images.
The dancers, starkly lit, are notable for their poise, balance, stamina, speed, energy and their statuesque, flexible naked bodies. Sometimes the bodies are so closely lined-up and linked, they seem to be one body, as in the riveting opening sequence, an ever-shifting helix, the show’s high spot.
It’s not easy to know what is going on. There is no narrative. It’s all mood, abstract and strange. The haunting sound track is by Icelandic group, Sigur Rós. The insistent drum beat makes it feel tribal. The dancers look wild. A huge statue of a nude man towers above them like a god.
Cheng Tsung-lung, in a statement in the printed programme, says Lunar Halo is exploring change and how our bodies inhabit a technologically-advanced world. Curiouser and curiouser.
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