Cloud Gate Dance Theatre

Cloud Gate Dance Theater (Chinese: 雲門舞集) is a modern dance group based in Taiwan, the first of its kind in Taiwan and Asia. It was founded by choreographer Lin Hwai-min in 1973, and later he shared its management with his late protégé, Lo Man-fei, a renowned choreographer in her own right. The troupe was inactive from October 1988 to September 1990. During this time, Lin spent time abroad in India and Indonesia, and studied at New York University.

Lin Hwai-min, in addition to being the founder and creative force behind Cloud Gate is also an important author of short stories, and was intimately involved in the literary scene in Taiwan in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Cloud Gate thrilled the Taiwan cultural scene when it came into being in the 1970s with an unbroken series of innovative dances and dance directions. Lin Hwai-min led the Cloud Gate Dance Theater in their first public performance at Zhongshan Hall in Taipei in 1972. Lin, himself, exhibits tireless curiosity about new forms and directions, and consequently Cloud Gate blends its roots in Asian mythology, folklore, and aesthetics with a modern sensibility. Dancers practice and perform using such diverse movement disciplines and artistic approaches as t'ai chi, meditation, martial arts, modern dance, and ballet.

Cloud Gate created numerous dances that evoked the unique experience of Taiwan people within the larger Chinese and Asian context, including such works as White Serpent Tale (bai she zhuan), an adaptation of a centerpiece of the Chinese folk canon, Legend of the White Snake ; Crossing the Ocean (du hai), a dance rich with layered references to generations of Chinese who have crossed the Taiwan Straits to reach Taiwan; Liao Tianding, about a legendary Taiwanese Robin Hood character who foiled oppressive officials during the period of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan; and Wu Feng, a long form piece with echoes of The Rite of Spring, about the Wu Feng Legend, concerning an official from the Chinese Mainland who was involved in early efforts to pacify aborigines in Taiwan.

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