Cloud Gate Dance Theater Collaborates With Local, International Choreographers

TaiwanPlus News

Renowned Taiwanese dance company, Cloud Gate Dance Theater, is collaborating with choreographers from Taiwan, Japan and Europe for a set of performances this weekend in New Taipei. It's part of the dance troupe's Spring Riot program originally launched in 2001 as a platform for new talent.

Transcript

00:00This is Cloud Gate Theatre in northern Taiwan.

00:04It's home to one of the country's leading dance companies, and this weekend it's set

00:08to host five unique performances by choreographers from Taiwan, Japan and Europe, with 20 of

00:14Cloud Gate's dancers.

00:22The works are a part of the dance troupe's Spring Riot program, originally launched in

00:262001 to showcase young talent.

00:29It's been a key platform for Taiwanese artists to debut new works, and this year all focuses

00:34on movement, with minimal theatrical design, as performances are stripped down to their

00:39purest essence, in what the artistic director has coined a Bear Spring Riot.

00:59I hope that everyone can feel so simple.

01:11While Cloud Gate's training methods draw on Tai Chi and martial arts, giving the group their

01:15own distinct movements, featured choreographers like Beru Madaling, whose dance company focuses

01:20on the movements of Taiwan's indigenous Paiwan people, and Hiroaki Omeda from Japan have

01:26brought in their own distinct techniques, leaving much in anticipation on how these styles will

01:30blend together for the Spring Riot works.

01:33So, I have developed my own dance method, movement method, already before coming here, I had known

01:40that Cloud Gate dancers are very trained and disciplined, and dancers are very good.

01:45So then I decided to share my movement method to the dancers, and they developed their own movement

01:52from the method.

01:55For the choreographers set to present their works here, it's a chance to join forces with

02:01the first contemporary dance company in the Chinese-speaking world.

02:05And for Cloud Gate dancers, it's their moment to step into a new groove, drawing on the roots

02:09and rhythms of dance communities in Taiwan and worldwide.

02:13Alex Chen and Izzy Wells for Taiwan Plus.

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