Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

Taiwan’s esteemed contemporary dance troupe returns to Zellerbach Hall following its warmly received 2016 performances of Rice. 13 Tongues (2016) is a recent work by Cloud Gate’s new artistic director Cheng Tsung-lung that translates his childhood memories of the bustling street life of Taipei into a vibrant fantasy world, as neon lights and urban sounds mingle with the city’s religious rites and festive parades. Like Rice before it, 13 Tongues mines the lived experiences and everyday surroundings of Taiwanese people to create a unique movement vocabulary, steeped in the company’s distinctive blend of modern dance, ballet, martial arts, and qigong. The music score by Lim Giong combines Taoist chants with folk songs and electronica, creating a richly layered atmosphere that is part real, part dream, the dancing vivid with “surges of high energy movement, punctuated by moments of exquisite stillness and beauty” (The Times, London).