Pure Movement, Pure Dance - Cloud Gate Director Lin Hwai-min

Cloud Gate, the modern dance company, from Taiwan returns to Beijing this month to perform the repertoire, Cursive, inspired by Chinese calligraphy. The company specializes in transforming Asian myths and folklore into dance, which has earned them a worldwide reputation. Founder and artistic director Lin Hwai-min studied Chinese opera movement in his native Taiwan, modern dance in New York, and classical court dance in Japan and Korea. Before the curtain rises, he gave The Beijigner the back-story of Cloud Gate and Cursive.

What is your understanding of the ancient dance, Cloud Gate, which is recorded in the book, Lv Shi Chun Qiu? Why did you name your troupe after this ancient dance?
“Cloud Gate” is a legendary ritual dance that supposedly existed 5,000 years ago. It’s a beautiful name. The dancer’s body is strong and dignified like a gate, while the transforming shapes of clouds are the best metaphor for the fleeting expression of dancing.

How has Cloud Gate developed over the past 30 years? Have there been changes to your style?
I founded the company with a very humble dream: to provide dancers a stage and to share our beloved art with society, especially grass-roots people. I am glad we are still doing that. The scale of the company and the extent to which we tour around the world today were beyond our wildest imagination when we started.

My earliest works were adapted from Peking Opera and Chinese classics, such as The Tale of the White Serpent (1975), and The Dream of the Red Chamber (1983). By the 1990s, however, I was drawn into pure movement, and moved beyond narratives, such as Songs of the Wanders, Moon Water and Cursive: A Trilogy.

How do you “break traditional elements and recombine them” in your work?
I don't “break traditional elements and recombine them” intentionally. In Taipei, we drink both Chinese tea and espresso; we surf on the web and worship in Taoist temples. I go to the National Palace Museum as frequently as I visit MOMA in New York. The old and new are both sources of my inspiration. From the founding of Cloud Gate, dancers have been trained in multiple disciplines from the East and the West. I just responded to those bodies.

For you, what is the boundary between ballet and modern dance and or modern dance and ethnic dance? How did you mix the dance movements with Tai chi and modern your work?
Ballet is an art form about lines. Ballet dancers elevate, just like Gothic church attempts to reach the heavens, while Asian dancers squat and are closer to the ground, from which energy is absorbed. Ballet emphasizes straight lines and elevation, whereas traditional Chinese technique always moves in circular form with an emphasis on chi. Western dance is all about physicality and Asian dance demands spirituality from the dancers.

For examples, Songs of the Wanderers (1994) comes from the practice of meditation, and Moon Water (1998), selected as the best dance of 2003 by the New York Times, owes its movement motives to Taiji Daoyin, an ancient form of chi kung. It is a natural process.

You have done three works based on Cursive. What do you like about it, and what is the difference and relationship between Cursive, Cursive II and Wild Cursive? What do you try to convey in Cursive?
We often say that good calligraphy is like a flying dragon and a dancing phoenix. I was always fascinated by the way ink flows on rice paper, tender and fluid, creating rich shadings, from intense black to misty white. I had hoped to convey the rich dynamics of dancing characters in calligraphy and the serene and intense power of the empty space on the white paper.

When we started working on Cursive in 2001, we hadn’t planned any sequels. It was only after the première when I realized that we’d only just started our journey and that there was still so much to discover. I would say Cursive was the beginning of an extensive process of exploring the body. For each new work, I always waited one or two years so that the dancers could further develop their “kung fu,” which in Chinese means both the skill and the time spent.

The three parts have turned out very differently. With each new part, we feel increasingly free, both with regard to the form and the movement. Cursive II emphasizes on the idea of blankness with fluid movements. In Wild Cursive, the third part, the audience can no longer see the choreography and the choreographer, but the dancers and their movements. Although carefully choreographed, the dancing looks like pure improvisation - it’s as if there was no more structure.

Why did you choose to bring Cursive to Beijing this time, after the Tale of the White Serpent and Moon Water?
This is Cloud Gate’s third visit to Beijing [the other were in 1993 and 2007], and the seventh to the mainland China. Cursive, with its roots in the aesthetics of calligraphy, should find a rapport with a Beijing audience.

How do you find this inspiration for Cursive? Is there any special person or special event that inspired you? Do you practice Chinese calligraphy? If so, when did you start and how often? How does it influence your choreography?
The National Palace Museum is 20 minutes away by car from my house. I often spend one hour each visit looking at one calligraphy work. I realized that the link between the dancers’ movements and the brush work in calligraphy is the energy. The characters on white rice paper actually are the traces of energy the masters used while they “danced” with a brush in their hands. Dancers can absorb that energy and move with it. Cloud Gate dancers have weekly calligraphy classes. They write much better than I do.

You are an excellent writer and have published many books. Does writing influence your choreography?
In the very beginning, I did a few narrative dance works, which drew material from literature and folklore. It was only after the mid-80s that I began reading things visually. It took me 20 years to erase words, because words eliminate the possibility of movement. If you have a plot and characters, movement is needed to convey the meaning of the story. Now, I read things in energy, and my dancers are freed from serving a character or a plot. They are just themselves, free to express through pure movements.

We also heard you are Buddhist? Is there any Buddhist influence in your work?
I am a Buddhist who makes pilgrimages to India frequently. Buddhism contends that life is illusory. I live in each instant, trying my best, no longer worrying about success or failure. Excellent works come from such a relaxed attitude.

In your opinion, how important is the stage design – how do props influence the dance? Have you had any technological problems? Which piece uses the most complicated technology to help the dance?
I think stage set is an integral part of the work, not “scenery.” I use every thing that I think is effective, such as covering the stage with three tons of rice grains (Songs of the Wanderers), flooding it with water (Moon Water), or transforming the orchestra pit into a little lotus pond with real leaves and blossoms. In Cursive, we have close-ups of calligraphy by ancient masters projected on the rear of the stage. In one section, the whole stage and proscenium are covered by hundreds of characters that start breathing when dancers move through them.

Besides the Chinese cultural elements you have used in your dance, such as folklore and calligraphy, what other elements would you like to explore or use in your dance?
I am curious about many things. Impressions and sentiments accumulate in everyday life that can develop into something worth exploring. I am a garbage can. Beautiful flowers grow out of the garbage, if it is richly fertilized.

If a dancer wants to join your troupe, what is expected of him or her? How do you normally train your dancers?
I love dancers who move with personality. Cloud Gate dancers must love dancing because they dance eight hours per day. Also, dancers have to be sensitive to different ways of using energy to enrich their physical expressiveness. Our dancers have classes of different types: modern dance, ballet, meditation, martial arts, and chi kung.

Which modern dance troupe is your favorite? Why? Have you seen any performances by Chinese modern dance troupes? Does any particular troupe impress you?
Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, William Forsythe, George Balanchine are my favorite choreographers. Unfortunately I don’t get many opportunities to see their works. Neither have I got to see enough performances of Chinese contemporary companies. We always perform for others and rarely sit down to watch others perform. Such is the destiny of a touring company.

Cursive runs from Nov 27-29 at the NCPA.