To make this performance a pleasant experience for the artists and other members of the audience, PLEASE switch off your alarm watches, MOBILE PHONES and PAGERS. Eating and drinking, unauthorised photography and audio or video recording are forbidden in the auditorium. Thank you for your co-operation.
藝術管理講座系列 Seminar Series on Arts Management 走過雲門的十五年 Cloud Gate’s Footprint 講者：執行總監葉芠芠 Speaker: Yeh Wen-wen, Executive Director 18.2.2006 (六Sat) 上午 10:45 - 11:15 am
地點：藝穗會 Venue: Fringe Club
需報名費 Registration fee required
詳情請參閱藝術節加料節目指南或瀏覽藝術節網站。
For details, please refer to Festival Plus booklet or go to our website: www.hk.artsfestival.org
Cursive : A Trilogy
Under the direction of choreographer
Lin Hwai-min, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan has been exploring traditional Chinese physical disciplines, including meditation, martial arts and Tai Chi Tao Yin, an ancient form of Chi Kung . The outcomes from these forms of training were Songs of the Wanderers (1994) and Moon Water (1998), which received international acclaim at festivals and theatres around the world, including the New York’s Next Wave Festival, the London Sadler’s Wells Theatre, the Lyon Biennial Dance Festival, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the 25th anniversary festival celebration of Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Cursive: A Trilogy is a landmark series, with ground-breaking movement style and original choreographic ideas inspired by Chinese aesthetics, which further cements Lin Hwai-min’s status as one of the prominent innovators of contemporary dance today.
“I am always fascinated by the way ink flows on rice paper,” he said, “tender and fluid, it creates rich shades, from intense black to misty white. I hope I can convey the rich dynamics of dancing characters in calligraphy and the serene and intense power of the empty space on the white paper.”
After studying Chinese calligraphy masterpieces, Lin found, despite the
differences in styles, they all shared one common element: the focused energy with which the calligraphers ‘danced’ during writing. He asked Cloud Gate dancers to improvise by facing blown-up images of calligraphy. The dancers absorbed the energy, or Chi, of the writer, and imitated the linear route of the ink, full of lyrical flows and strong punctuation, with rich variations in energy. The exercise produced unimaginable movements, with subtle slow motions and dynamic martial arts-like attacks. These eventually became the material for Cursive (2001), with slides of gigantic brush characters as backdrops, a work of stunning beauty that received rave reviews in Europe and the US.
Cursive II (2003), a sequel to Cursive, set to the music of John Cage, is drastically different from its forerunner. While Cursive emphasizes the darker blacks with vigorous attacks, Cursive II explores the lighter shades in a meditative mood.
The final chapter of the trilogy Cursive III (2005) draws choreographic ideas from Kuang Chao or ‘wild calligraphy,’ which is considered the pinnacle in Chinese cursive aesthetics. Inspired by the essence of ‘wild calligraphy’, rice paper is used as the only set decoration. Black ink seeps onto the paper slowly, creating ‘wild’ and abstract patterns, and breathes through the entire performance. Cloud Gate dancers’ organic vocals and foot stamps further enrich the music with natural sounds.
2006 年 2 月 15 日（星期三）
Wednesday, 15 February 2006 2001
Cursive
編舞 林懷民
音樂* 瞿小松
舞台及映像設計 林克華
燈光設計 張贊桃
服裝設計 林璟如
委約製作
台灣國立中正文化中心
協同製作
美國芝加哥大劇院
美國愛荷華漢秋大劇院
首演
2001 年 12 月 1 日台北國家戲劇院
* 廣達電腦教育基金會委約 commissioned by Quanta Education Foundation
Lin Hwai-min Choreographer
Qu Xiaosong Music*
Lin Keh-hua Set and Image Designer
Chang Tsan-tao Lighting Designer
Lin Ching-ju Costume Designer
Commissioned by The National Theatre, Taipei
Co-Commissioned by Auditorium Theatre Council, Chicago Hancher Auditorium, University of Iowa
Premiere 1 December 2001 at the National Theatre, Taipei
楊儀君 以及
邱怡文、周偉萍、劉惠玲 林佳良、唐國峰、黃旭徽
周章佞
黃珮華 以及
林姿君、周偉萍、溫璟靜 楊儀君、蔡慧貞、蘇依屏 余建宏、唐國峰
邱怡文、汪志浩
林姿君、黃珮華、劉惠玲 蘇依屏、宋超群、蔡銘元
余建宏、林佳良、唐國峰
曹桂興、黃旭徽
李靜君、蔡銘元
溫璟靜、楊儀君 林佳良、唐國峰、曹桂興
周章佞
2.
3.
Yang I-chun and Chiu I-wen, Chou Wei-ping, Huang Hsu-hui
Lin Chia-liang, Liu Hui-ling, Tang Kuo-feng
Chou Chang-ning
Huang Pei-hua and Chou Wei-ping, Lin Tzu-chun, Su I-ping
Cursive is the result of a long journey into ancient practices of movement and spirituality.
In 2001, Lin Hwai-min explored the possibilities of Tai Chi Tao Yin and martial arts, and created Cursive its title is derived from the Chinese art of calligraphy.
For the choice of music, Lin commissioned a score from Qu Xiaosong, a renowned Chinese contemporary composer. It is a chamber work that features a cello and three percussion instruments recorded by Reimund Korupp & Percussion Plus in Heidelberg, Germany. The tension in the music comes from the contrast between the flow of the cello and the punctuations and explosions from the percussion instruments. With its plentiful empty spaces, the music
also has a meditative quality. Lin likes the empty space in classical Chinese landscape paintings. And he loves the way one views classical paintings in which the images unfold as if a scroll is being rolled open.
The look of Cursive , however, is contemporary. Dancers dressed in black perform on a stage covered with white Marley, just like black ink on white rice paper. Video and slide projections on several gigantic white screens serve as the only set for the work. For each scene, screens change to either reveal black drapes upstage or hanging in mid-air. Calligraphy is the sole content of the projections. Close-ups of Chinese characters by master calligraphers are beautiful and abstract, defying the meaning of the characters but echoing the energy flow of the dancers.
To enter, just write your name, HKID number, telephone number and email address on the back of your ticket (for the shows listed below), and drop it into the Dragonair lucky draw box beside the Hong Kong Arts Festival Information Counter.
Winners will be announced in the SCMP and Ming Pao on 13 March 2006.
Performance and lucky draw details: The Artistry of Gender Switching in Beijing Opera Concert Hall, HK City Hall (2 Business Class return tickets from Hong Kong to Beijing)
Friday-Saturday, 17-18 February7:30pm
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan — Cursive: A Trilogy Grand Theatre, HK Cultural Centre (2 Business Class return tickets from Hong Kong to Shanghai)
Chiu I-wen, Lin Tzu-chun, Wen Ching-ching, Yang I-chun
Cheng Tsung-lung and Lin Chia-liang, Tang Kuo-feng, Tsai Ming-yuan
Wang Chih-hao, Wong Lap-cheong 3.
Huang Pei-hua and Wang Chih-hao
Lee Ching-chun
Cheng Tsung-lung, Huang Hsu-hui, Lin Chia-liang
Sung Chao-chiun, Tang Kuo-feng, Tsai Ming-yuan
Tsao Kuei-hsing, Wang Chih-hao, Wong Lap-cheong
6.
Cheng Tsung-lung, Chiu I-wen, Huang Hsu-hui
Shen Yi-wen, Su I-ping, Tang Kuo-feng
Tsai Ming-yuan, Wen Ching-ching
7.
Chou Wei-ping and Sung Chao-chiun 8.
Chou Chang-ning, Su I-ping, Tang Kuo-feng
Wen Ching-ching and Chiu I-wen, Chou Wei-ping, Tsai Hui-chen, Tsai Ming-yuan, Tsao Kuei-hsing, Wang Chih-hao, Wong Lap-cheong
9.
10.
Lin Chia-liang
Liu Hui-ling, Su I-ping and Tsai Ming-yuan
11. The Company
Cursive II
Cursive II, a sequel to Cursive, had its international premiere at the opening of the Melbourne International Festival, right after its world premiere in Taipei in August 2003. Although both Cursive and Cursive II were inspired by the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, Cursive II differs from its forerunner. The Chinese believe there are five shades of black ink. While Cursive emphasizes the darker blacks with lots of vigorous attacks, Cursive II explores the lighter shades in a meditative mood, evoking the serene quality of porcelain from the Song Dynasty.
A work of delicate lyricism, Cursive II celebrates the elegance of calligraphy and the power of emptiness. A white floor and white backdrop create a stage that resembles a huge sheet of rice paper. As the dance unfolds through the lighting and slide projection, like ice-crackled markings on porcelain, the colour on the backdrop gradually evolves from shining white to different shades of brown, just as ancient calligraphy scrolls aged over the centuries.
2006 年 2 月 18 ， 19 日（星期六及星期日夜場）
Saturday and Sunday evenings, 18 and 19 February 2006
Cursive III
2005
編舞 林懷民
音樂 沈聖德 梁春美
舞台
構思 林懷民
技術顧問 王孟超 呈現 洪韡茗
紙墨研發 中日特種紙廠 工研院化工所
燈光設計 張贊桃
服裝設計 王世信
Lin Hwai-min Choreographer
Jim Shum Music
Liang Chun-mei
Set
Lin Hwai-min Conception
Austin Wang Technical Consultant
Hung Wei-ming Realisation
Paper and Ink
Chung Rhy Special Paper
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Union Chemical Laboratories
Chang Tsan-tao Lighting Designer
Sammy Wang Costume Designer
委約製作
永齡教育慈善基金會
台灣國立中正文化中心
協同製作
美國芝加哥哥倫比亞舞蹈中心
芝加哥喬伊斯基金會 及 阿法伍德基金會
首演 2005 年 11 月 19 日台北國家戲劇院
Commissioned by Yong Lin Foundation The National Theatre, Taipei
Co-commissioned by The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago with support from The Joyce Foundation and Alphawood Foundation
The final chapter of the Cursive Trilogy, Cursive III premiered in November 2005.
With a movement style developed and established in Cursive and Cursive II, and the advanced technical and mental strength of the dancers, Lin Hwai-min approached this work with more confidence and freedom. Lin has drawn choreographic ideas from Kuang Chao, ‘wild calligraphy,’ which is considered the pinnacle in Chinese cursive aesthetics and frees characters from any set form and exposes the spiritual state of the writer in its expressive abstraction.
Inspired by the spirit of ‘wild calligraphy,’ Cursive III utilises paper as its only set. On a stage covered by white Marley, streams of white rice paper cascade to the floor with black ink pouring from hidden pipes above, and seeping on to the paper slowly and almost invisibly. The ink feathers and spreads in abstract patterns true to the spirit of chance as set forth in I-Ching The Book of Changes. With these traces of time accumulating, an art installation of a set in progress emerges. As the ink breaths through the performance, the lighting design illuminates the transparency of the rice paper and enhances the power of the flowing black images.
Against and between the layers of rice paper, Cloud Gate dancers’ exquisitely liquid movements echo the serpentine and meandering lines of the ink. Throughout, the
dancers’ breath coming from the Dan Tian, the core of their torsos, provides a subtle undercurrent to this constantly shifting feast for the eyes. Their organic vocals and foot stamps further enrich the sounds from the hum of cicadas, gusts of wind, waves breaking on the pebbled beaches, dripping water, rainfall, foghorns and temple bells, creating a natural soundscape.
According to legend, Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance in China, a ritual dance of some 5,000 years ago. In 1973, choreographer Lin Hwai-min adopted this classical name for the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese speaking Community: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.
Cloud Gate’s rich repertoire has its roots in Asian myths, folklore and aesthetics, but it brings to these age old beliefs and stories a contemporary and universal perspective. The company is made up of two dozen dancers whose training includes tai chi , meditation, martial arts, Beijing Opera technique, modern dance and ballet.
Cloud Gate has been on extensive overseas tours throughout the continents of Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America, which have included engagements at New York’s Next Wave Festival, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, Lyon Biennial Dance Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Berlin Festival, the festival celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal, Sadler’s Wells Theatre and the Barbican Centre in London, Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Kennedy Center.
In 2003, Cloud Gate opened the Melbourne International Arts Festival with Cursive II, winning both the Age Critics’ Award and the Patrons’
Choice Award, while in New York, Moon Water was named the best dance of the year by dance critic, Anna Kisselgoff, of the New York Times
At home, Cloud Gate also enjoys great acclaim and popularity. It performs throughout Taiwan, in venues ranging from the National Theatre in Taipei to mid-sized cultural centres in various cities to high school auditoriums in remote villages. The company also gives free outdoor performances several times a year, drawing audiences of up to 60,000 per performance.
In 1998, the Cloud Gate Dance School was founded to bring the joy of dance to students, from age 4 to 84.
Cloud Gate 2, which tours campuses and grassroots communities, was founded in 1999 to foster young choreographers in Taiwan.
In 2003, in recognition of Cloud Gate’s contribution to the cultural life of Taipei City, the Taipei City Government proclaimed 21 August, the first day of Cloud Gate’s 30th anniversary season, as ‘Cloud Gate Day’ and named Fu-Hsing North Road, Lane 231(home of Cloud Gate’s offices), as ‘Cloud Gate Lane’. This was the first time Taiwan has bestowed the honour of naming a day and place after a living artist or artistic group.
Most of Cloud Gate’s productions have been made into videos and DVDs, including Songs of the Wanderers, Moon Water and Bamboo Dream
港龍航空為雲門舞集團員提供航空服務 Members of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre are flown in by
藝術總監／編舞 Artistic Director and Choreographer
林懷民
Lin Hwai-min
林懷民輝煌成功地融合東西舞蹈技巧與劇場觀念。 紐約時報 “Lin Hwai-min has succeeded brilliantly in fusing dance techniques and theatrical concepts from the East and the West.”
Founder and Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, Lin Hwai-min studied Chinese opera movement in his native Taiwan, modern dance in New York and classical court dance in Japan and Korea. He founded the company in 1973.
An internationally renowned choreographer, Lin often draws from traditional Asian culture for inspiration and material to create works with innovative forms and contemporary relevance, which have been highly acclaimed by international critics.
For his artistic achievements Lin has received the Joyce Awards from the Joyce Foundation, USA (2005); an Honorary Doctorate from Hong Kong Baptist University (2004); the National Award for Arts (for the second time) from the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation (2002); the Fok Ying Tung Contribution Prize (2001); an Honorary Doctorate from National Chung Cheng University of Taiwan (1999); an Honorary Award of Fellowship by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (1997); a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Department of Culture of New York City
(1996); and named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in the World by Jaycees International (1983).
Lin was featured as the Choreographer of the 20th Century by Dance Europe magazine; cited as the Best Choreographer at Lyon Biennial Festival; chosen to be one of the Personalities of the Year in 2000, along with Merce Cunningham, Jirí Kylián, Pina Bausch and William Forsythe, by Ballet International magazine; honoured at the 2004 International Dance Forum Award Ceremony; and celebrated by TIME magazine as one of the Asia’s Heroes in its 2005 Special Issue.
An acclaimed writer, Lin holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. His novel Cicada is an all-time bestseller in Taiwan, and several of his works have been translated into English and published in the US.
Lin founded the Department of Dance at Taiwan’s National Taipei University of the Arts in 1983 and served as its Chairman for five years. In 1993 and 1994, he was the founding dean of the institute’s graduate dance programme. In 1999 he gave masterclasses in Cambodia assisting local dancers to organise teaching materials of Khmer classical dance for children. Lin Hwai-min made his debut as an opera director with the Rashomon in 1996 at the Graz Opera, Austria. In 2002 he directed Tosca , with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. In 2004, his production Smoke was restaged by the Zurich Ballet to much acclaim the first time his work has been restaged by a classical ballet company. In 2005, his production White was restaged by Introdans one of the largest and most active modern dance companies in the Netherlands.
Since 2000, Lin has served as the Artistic Director of the Novel Hall New Dance Series, which introduces internationally renowned avant-garde groups and artists to dance lovers in Taiwan.
Lee Ching-chun graduated with a Master’s degree in Dance Studies from City University of the Laban Centre, London in 1999. In 2004, she received the National Award for the Arts from the Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation.
Joining Cloud Gate in 1983, Lee has taken title roles in many of Lin Hwaimin’s works including the Cursive Trilogy, Smoke, Bamboo Dream, Burning the Juniper Branches, Portrait of the Families, Songs of the Wanderers, Nine Songs and The Dream of the Red Chamber
Her choreographic works include Woman and Man, Man and Woman, While White Is Revealing and Burst. She also choreographed and performed in the dance solo work Courtyard of Pearls.
Lee Ching-chun is also the Chief Consultant for the Cloud Gate Dance School.
Qu Xiaosong was born in Guizhou, China in 1952. In 1972, he started to teach himself the violin. One year later, he became a violist in a Beijing opera orchestra in his hometown from where, in 1978, he was selected by the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. After graduation, he went on to teach composition in the conservatory until 1988. After living in New York for ten years, he moved back to China and now lives in Beijing. Qu has received commissions from the Holland Festival in the Netherlands, the Festival d’Automne in Paris, the Munich Biennial, the Swedish Folk-Opera Company, the Percussion Group Cincinnati and several orchestras and dance companies in Hong Kong.
One of 20th century America’s great musical innovators, John Cage was born in Los Angeles. He left Pomona College early to travel in Europe; studied with Cowell in New York (1933-34) and Schönberg in Los Angeles (1934). From 1937, when he moved to Seattle to work as a dance accompanist, he influenced and had been an integral figure in the modern dance world. He founded a percussion orchestra and began to use electronic devices and invented the ‘prepared piano’, placing diverse objects between the strings of a grand piano in order to create an effective percussion orchestra under the control of two hands. He was the musical advisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company until he died. Together, Cage and Cunningham were responsible for a number of radical innovations in musical and choreographic composition.
Jim Shum started making super-8 films in high school. His short films have taken top prizes in 1979 and 1980 at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film Festival, and been shown extensively at international film festivals. He co-founded the avant-garde theatre group Zuni Icosahedron and began composing electronic music and video art pieces for Zuni productions. Shum composed his first film score in 1983.
He has been nominated and awarded multiple times in both Hong Kong and Taiwan film awards for best sound and music. In Taiwan, he recorded a series of musical composition from local ethnic artists and released them under his own label Olala! Music. Shum continues to record and produce music for local bands and artists.
Liang Chun-Mei joined Cloud Gate as company accompanist in 1991, and was appointed as the company music consultant in 2001. Since 1991 Liang has been a music accompaniment professor at the Dance Department of the Taipei University of the Arts. She arranges music instrumentation for pop music, and is one of the most popular young music directors/producers and accompanist for Taiwan’s dance and theatre companies. Liang graduated from the Applied Music at School of Music, University of California, Los Angeles, in 1990. She has had her compositions performed in the US and Tokyo, and won the Tokyo Live Electronics Composition Music Competition in 2002. In 2001 Liang was the music producer for Cloud Gate 2 ’s Young Choreographers’ Workshop and in 2003, along with others, Liang produced a modern dance music accompaniment CD The Wave.
Chang Tsan-tao holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technical Production from the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College. His major lighting design achievements include The Road to the Mountain , Bamboo Dream , Moon Water , White , Songs of the Wanderers, and other works in Cloud Gate’s repertoire. He has also worked as the lighting designer for other dance and theatre companies in Taiwan. In 2002, he was the lighting designer for the Nation al Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of the opera Tosca directed by Lin Hwai-min. At present, Chang is technical director, resident lighting designer and lighting director of Cloud Gate.
Lin Keh-hua is one of the most celebrated designers in the Chinesespeaking diaspora. Lin’s designs employ Western aesthetics and technology together with an Oriental philosophy and perspective. He combines lighting design with set design, applying his experiences from projection and image design and theatre and architectural lighting design, to create a unique space and lighting aesthetic of his own. His style has received recognition among international choreographers and artists, and he has designed for leading performance groups in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the US. He is also the artistic director of the Crossover Dance Company.
Austin Wang holds a Master of Fine Arts in Scenery and Lighting Design from the University of Southern California. His major scenic designs for Cloud Gate include The Road to the Mountain (2004), Smoke (2002), Bamboo Dream (2001), Moon Water (1998), Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (1995) and Songs of the Wanderers (1994). In 2004, he was awarded an achievement award in Poland. During his stay in the US, Wang worked as an assistant scenic designer for the stage department of the Juilliard School in New York, where he was assistant set designer for Chekhov’s Three Sisters When he returned to Taiwan, he worked as technical manager and stage manager at the National Theatre in Taipei, and also as technical director at the China Times Performing Arts Center.
Serving as the production manger and resident set designer for Cloud Gate between 1993 and 2001, Wang currently is Cloud Gate ’s technical consultant and principal set designer. He also works as the technical design director for the Creative Society and teaches in the Theatre Department at the Chinese Culture University.
One of the most senior costume designers in Taiwan, Lin Ching-ju has worked in this field for over 20 years. She studied at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and in 1992, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in New York and to participate in the productions of the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera. Lin has designed the costumes for the company’s major repertoire, including the internationally acclaimed The Road to the Mountain (2004), Moon Water (1998) and The Dream of the Red Chamber (1983).
Sammy Wang received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York at Purchase. He is currently the Director and Associate Professor for the Department of Theatre Design and Technology at the Taipei University of the Arts (formerly Natio nal Institute of the Arts).
From modern theatre and traditional plays to operas, the richness in variety and imaginative power of Wang’s designs have made him Taiwan’s hottest stage design talent. Over the years, he has been invited by many of Taiwan’s leading performing arts groups to take charge of set and lighting design.
In 1993, Wang received an invitation to participate in the 2nd Asian Theatre Design Exhibition in Tokyo.
