Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan October 21, 2011

Full details at http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=662
The virtuosity of the dancers from the Taiwanese company Cloud Gate has caused critics to rave that they "possess a control and articulation that verge on the superhuman." (Chicago Sun-Times) Trained in tai chi, meditation, Chinese opera movement, modern dance, and ballet, the company performs a rich repertoire with roots in Asian myths, folklore, and aesthetics, all infused with a contemporary perspective. For this long-awaited UMS debut, Cloud Gate presents Lin Hwai-min’s newest work, Water Stains on the Wall. The white set looks like a blank piece of rice paper traditionally used by Chinese calligraphers and painters, onto which images of drifting clouds in different degrees of blackness are projected, with dancers grounded on a tilted floor yet appearing to float. They look like flowing ink, creating exquisite spaces that are constantly shifting, reminding one of Chinese classical landscape painting. Luxuriating in the sheer joy of movement, these remarkably fluid performers make stillness every bit as breathtaking as action. "Water stains on the wall" is a popular metaphor that represents the highest state in the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy. Hwai-min and dancers take off from this metaphor and create an abstract work of beauty and magic that stands sublimely on its own.