the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, poetry of movement said Princess Haiku

Bamboo Dream; the sadness that comes out at midnight... said Princess Haiku

Waking dreams or Watching the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan.

A DVD of Bamboo Dream arrived from Netflix today and I have viewed it three times already. For those of you who pan netflix do be advised it has a superior collection of documentaries and performing arts films. Yes, I know that one waits forever to receive new releases, but high art awaits your summons.

I saw Wild Cursive at Cal Performance two years ago and would dearly like to see Bamboo Dream live. Artistic Director and Choreographer Lin Hwai-min's esthetic exploration of the bitter symbolism of the bamboo evokes pristine beauty and pathos. It speaks to the tragic and temporal nature of human life and the constant movement of the psyche.

The evergreen Chinese bamboo survives even the bitterest of winters thus symbolizing integrity and also representing elegance. Bamboo plays a role as metaphor in many ancient tales. Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants and the delicate and constant movement of the dancers evokes this mysterious process.

Before even the lyrical dream sequences representing the seasons are over, an entire new forest of bamboo has arisen around heart and soul. In my Western interpretation it is difficult to decide if the rapid and amorphous movement is the protection or the dense forest that results. As spirits of a bamboo netherland, dancers create and recreate haunted landscape and ancient history before our eyes. The dancers of Cloud Gate benefit from the ideas and concepts of collectivity and perform as one breath. Arvo Part's paens to the mythology surrounding bamboo in Asia is perfectly expressive of Hwai=min's concept.

Each of the dancers in this ensemble are qualified to be a danseur/ballerina. Put them all together and voila. you have Cloud Gate Theater of Taiwan dancing for Princess Haiku. Of note also is the flute improvisations of Chinest flute player Huang Sheng-Kai. I am going to check youtube so check my video player, right side of blog.

Here is a great review:

From the initial strains of an unearthly Chinese flute, played by a solitary wanderer on a stage forested with bamboo trees, Bamboo Dream promises to be a mystical work of exquisite beauty. Using an intoxicating array of styles, choreographer Lin Hwai-min has created a piece which seamlessly marries the grace of classical ballet with the drama of traditional Asian gesture and the self-discipline of martial arts

Reviewer is Nina Miall.

Perfect Notes

Chrysanthemum
perfect notes in my life.
On cellophane tags- these words
perfection,
love, movement,
touch.


What notes are in your life today?

Blogs such as

Mystic Rose

Altered State of Mind

Mindinside

wordsthatflow

KyotoDailyPhoto

Sumangali

often evoke perfect notes.

Here is giving thanks to the spiritual presence of special people on the net.

Princess Haiku Discovers Another Cloud Gate Dance Theater Video

I found another, Cloud Gate Dance Theater Video on youTube. This one shows the company, directed by Lin Hwai-min hard at work. You will find other video links and information about them via this link. A wonderful DVD "MOONWATER" can be obtained here.

Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Dreams

Am I am falling asleep as I watch this exquisite video of Cloud Gate Dance Theater or awake?

Wild Cursive: a dance review

I attended a performance of "Wild Cursive " at Cal Performance in Berkeley California. Wild Cursive is the Final Chapter of Cursive: A trilogy performed by Taiwan's premiere Cloud Gate Dance Theater. Choreographer, Lin Hwai-min's scintillating blend of East/West dance style erupts into a brilliant mythic fusion informed by Kung chao "wild calligraphy." Wild calligraphy represents the pinnacle of Chinese cursive aesthetics in which rules are embraced and broken. -Thus freeing the characters and internal selves of the audience from any set form. To call "Wild Cursive" unique is an understatement; it needs to be understood experientially. As eyes and ears follow the hero/heroine journey of the dancers upon the stage the myriad experiences of our lives unpeel. As the dancers come closer and closer to expressing absolute purity of form/nonform, deep levels of the soul respond.

From a vantage point in a side balcony box, high above the stark beauty of the stage; the drop hundreds of feet below into the stunning graphic simplicity of the stage took my breath away. As Cal Performance describes in their introduction to the dance, "The Cloud Gate dancer's spellbinding movements echo the serpentine lines of black ink as it flows down cascading streams of rice paper onto the stage." Embrace beauty, says Princess Haiku, it is everywhere.



This video clip is of an earlier performance, "Cloud Gate."