An exquisite retrospective

I’m quite sure I’m not the only member of a dance audience who’s not really fond of dance gala programmes. Especially in classical ballet presentation, this usually means a mere showcase of dance skills and the focus is more on whether or not each individual principal dancer can perfect the familiar choreography, after having watched them in a few full-length ballets. 
Although “Lin Hwaimin: A Retrospective” was billed as such, what the audience recently witnessed over two-and-a-half hours at the Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay as part of its year-round “da:ns series” was considerably different from any dance gala seen before. Instead, it offered a chance to watch excerpts of works we had not seen before and may not have an opportunity to see again. With 11 scenes of various lengths and subject matters from 10 works, the keenly curated programme showed the company’s development under the artistic leadership of dance master Lin, from when they first caught global attention in the 1990s to the international super-stardom status achieved this decade.

Chou Chang-ning in "Cursive"
 

The curtain raiser was a riveting solo by Chou Changning who’s been a Cloud Gate member since the 1990s and is now the company’s rehearsal director. Portraying Character Yong from “Cursive” (2001), her performance not only showed the interrelationship between the movements and the Chinese calligraphy but also the knowledge and skills she’s accumulated through the decades. Putting this with the fresh faces and young bodies of some dancers in the latter scenes like the finale from “Pine Smoke” (2003), the depth of this ensemble underlines the company’s promising future, even though the founder, master Lin, is stepping down later this year.
While romantic relationships and nature were effectively reflected and tastefully choreographed in duets like “Autumn Path” from “Bamboo Dream” (2001) and “Pollen” from “Rice” (2013), the dance theatre group piece “White Dress” from “Portrait of the Families” (1997) showed how a political crisis affected families, and was a special treat in this retrospective. Voiceovers narrating true accounts of the 228 massacre in 1947 and its aftermath, the English translation of which we read in the house programme book, accompanied the dance movements and touched the audience’s hearts. Another delight was the three Mandopop songs, including Jay Chou’s “The Unspeakable Secret”, the joviality of which caught the audience by surprise after the intermission, as excerpts from “How Can I Live On Without You?” not only gave an opportunity for the younger members of the company to show their characterisation skills, but also reflected Lin’s social commentary as he used crossgender casting to hilarious effect.
While applause after each scene was loud and long, a slight letdown was the fact that, being a gala programme of course, some technical effects could not be recreated exactly as in the original productions, such as in “Moon Water” (1998), one of the company’s most popular and critically acclaimed works, and “Wind Shadow” (2006). In these cases, some audience members probably had to recall the visual images from the original productions and use their imagination to add them to the dancers’ performance, which was otherwise as sublime as the original. 

Chen Mu-han, Fan Chia-hsuan, Ko Wan-chun, Su I-ping, Chen Lien-wei, Hou Tang-Li, Lin Hsin-fang and Wong Lap-cheong in "Pine Smoke."

At the theatre entrance, autographed posters of Cloud Gate’s and Cloud Gate 2’s productions seen there in the past 17 years were on show, further proving the bond between the Taiwanese company and the Singapore audience and why this retrospective was necessary. Meanwhile, it’s been almost a decade since the company performed “Moon Water” in Thailand. Isn’t it about time they came back?

Another Dance Titan

- Esplanade’s da:ns series continues with Paris Opera Ballet who will perform a contemporary programme including William Forsythe’s “Blake Works”, Jerome Robbins’ “In the Night” and Crystal Pite’s “The Seasons’ Canon” from June 21 to 23 at the Esplanade Theatre. Tickets are from SGD 60 (Bt1,380) to 180 (SGD 45 and 60 for students) at www.esplanade.com/dans. More info is also at Facebook.com/dansfestival.
- For more on Cloud Gate, visit www.CloudGate.org.tw.