Opening the Cloud Gates
Rice, a work in celebration of Cloud Gate’s 40th anniversary, took Lin Hwai-min two years to finish.
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre has traveled to five continents and 187 cities, where it has performed more than 2000 shows. But what Lin, the founder of the company, cares about most are the small towns and campuses that the dance company wanted to serve when it was founded.
“I discovered that the quickest way to Taitung was through New York.” When speaking to young people about their dreams, Lin explains with great feeling: You can only stake out some space on your native soil if you first boldly make forays abroad. He is finally able to act upon his earliest hopes for Cloud Gate now, 40 years later.
When he was 14, overflowing with natural talent, Lin began to write fiction. The José Limón modern dance company visited Taiwan that year, and it piqued his interest in dance. He took the money he earned from his writing and applied it to dance lessons.
In 1969 Lin graduated with a degree in journalism from National Chengchi University and went abroad to pursue further studies. While he was in the United States, he grew enthralled with Martha Graham and enrolled in a program where Graham and Merce Cunningham taught.
In 1972 Lin completed his studies and returned home. The following year, passionately believing that Taiwan should have its own dance troupe, Lin founded Cloud Gate, Taiwan’s first professional dance company and Greater China’s first modern dance troupe, almost on a whim. He has stated on several occasions that it wasn’t until the company sold out all 3000-plus seats of Zhongshan Hall in its first performance that he really decided to devote himself to choreography. “I almost collapsed under the pressure!”
Cloud Gate started off by dancing in its homeland, but it was not all smooth sailing. In 1983 Lin was invited to found the dance department at Taipei National University of the Arts. Burning the candle on both ends left him feeling burnt out, and he ended up in 1988 announcing that Cloud Gate was suspending its operations.
The company’s hiatus caused quite a stir. Fortunately, to great fanfare and anticipation, Cloud Gate revived in 1991, soothing the spirits of Taiwan’s people. Yet what was Lin himself relying on for comfort and support?
Ever since he founded Cloud Gate when he was 26, Lin knew that his life would not be easy. He often describes himself as “pregnant” as he gives birth to a new work. He laments that the 24 hours of a day are not enough for him to accomplish the tasks at hand. He fills his own needs very simply, often eating nothing but bread and boiled frozen dumplings. And because he lacks time to consider what to wear, he is given to matching black shirts with black pants.
However simply he meets his material needs, Lin, who is now 60, is able to draw energy from reading widely and enjoying the passionate support of the public. In The Making of Cloud Gate, he describes participating in the pilgrimage of the Dajia Mazu deity. He recalls meeting a woman in Xizhou, who grasped his hand and said: “Thank you for your beautiful art.” The comment was a form of spiritual medicine that kept him going for another three years.
Cloud Gate is Asia’s preeminent modern dance company and also among the greatest of dance companies anywhere. In 2013 Lin was invited by UNESCO to represent dancers from around the world to deliver a three-minute message in Paris on International Dance Day.
“Dance is a powerful expression,” he said. “It speaks to earth and heaven. It speaks of our joy, our fear and our wishes.... In this digital age, images of movements take millions of forms. They are fascinating. But they can never replace dance because images do not breathe.”
Rice explores the four stages of growing rice to describe the cycles of life and the relationship that people have to the land. From left to right: pollination (photo by Chin Hung-hao), sunlight (photo by Chuang Kung-ju), fire (photo by Chin Hung-hao), and water (photo by Chin Hung-hao).