Premiere New York Premiere
Country of Origin Taiwan
Description Songs of the Wanderers, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's visually stunning paean to spiritual pilgrimage, marks the Taiwan-based troupe's return to BAM, following its acclaimed 1995 presentation of Nine Songs. Inspired by Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, founder and choreographer Lin Hwai-min establishes a mood of intense reverence, distinctly Asian in its imagery yet global in its impact.
A master at transforming ancient rites into resonant, technically sophisticated dance-theater, Lin Hwai-min seamlessly merges lulling Georgian folk music and stately, spiritually evocative movement and gestures with a set made of an astonishing four tons of rice grain. The performers constantly shift and shape the golden grain, creating a mutable terrain that changes from a winding tributary to a contemplative Zen garden to a clearing for a whirling dervish. Sometimes it comes from the sky in gentle mists, or in a sudden, shocking deluge. The one constant: a holy man, his eyes closed in meditation, hands clasped in prayer, standing perfectly still under at continuous stream of falling rice.
Identifier 2000f.00701
