On the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, a song and dance program "Here Cuicui" quickly became a hit on the whole network in a short period of time, which aroused the admiration of the audience. The sudden popularity of "Here Cui" opened a new chapter in the performance of the company. Four years later, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, one of the world's leading contemporary dance companies, returned to Beijing to present a new dance work, Early Morning, in which the unique physical beauty of Cloud Gate collides with the ideas of the new era, outlining a colorful life story. For more information, please visit the following**: National Centre for the Performing Arts Tickets. In the name of "Cloud Gate", Cloud Gate Dance has become a legend in the modern dance world. According to ancient records, "Cloud Gate" is the oldest dance form in China, and legend has it that it originated in the era of the Yellow Emperor. The Cloud Gate Dance mainly praises the great achievements of Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor in unifying the world, enlightening wisdom, building the country, and benefiting the people, and contains a profound philosophy of returning to the origin. In 1973, Lin Huaimin created the Cloud Gate Dance Troupe under the name of "Cloud Gate". Cloud Gate Dance Ensemble combines traditional Chinese culture, modern humanistic concepts and diverse dance vocabulary, and uses body language that combines Eastern and Western skills to create a unique "Cloud Gate Style".
With its unique creativity and exquisite dance skills, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre has won warm praise from audiences and dance critics from all over the world, and is known as a "world-class modern dance company". In 2020, Zheng Zonglong succeeded Lin Huaimin as the artistic director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre. During the epidemic, the dancers of Cloud Gate could only conduct classes and rehearsals online**, and this unusual way also brought Zheng Zonglong creative inspiration to create the colorful work "Early Morning". "Early Morning" is an emotionally charged work, and each story is rooted in the dancers' real experiences and feelings—untold confessions, little-known secrets, unspeakable sorrows, and deep-seated desires. Different from the style of Cloud Gate's previous works that see strength in steadiness, the light of "Early Morning" always shines on the stage, at first it is light pink gentleness, and when it shines, it is as hot as a burning cloud, just like those confused and hesitant, still blazing youth, stirring the heart. Four years later, Cloud Gate Dance Ensemble's 50th anniversary performance will be staged in the mainland. With a history of half a century, Cloud Gate Dance Company is the first modern dance group in Chinese-speaking society, and also represents the modern dance of Taiwan, China.
Founder Lin Huaimin often draws inspiration from traditional Asian culture and aesthetics to create dance works with a modern consciousness that are highly regarded on the international stage. Unlike Lin Huaimin, who focuses on traditional Chinese culture and conveys blank space and poetry, Zheng Zonglong's works often feel a more primitive and powerful dance impact. Cloud Gate Dance Company has launched more than 100 dance works, and performed more than 1,000 performances on more than 200 stages in Europe, America, Asia, Australia, etc., and Cloud Gate's dance works "Walking Grass", "Water Moon", "Nine Songs", "Song of the Wanderer", "Rice Harvest", "White Water Dust" and other works are hard to find. Cloud Gate's unique body aesthetics are combined with the thinking of a new generation, so that the brilliance of life reflects the multifaceted you. This time, the "Xia" brought by the Cloud Gate Dance Troupe took ** as the main line, and chose **'s "Unaccompanied Cello Suite" to interpret the loneliness between living individuals.
But what is different is that ** does not come from the regular strings, but is played by four saxophones in underground quarries, mines, warehouses, and Italian palaces, etc., so that the ** sound has different reverberations and layers, as if it can touch the depths of our hearts. The stage design of "Kasumi" is also a highlight. In order to fully present the individual stories of the dancers, Zheng Zonglong set up a painting course for each dancer, and through the collaboration of Zhou Dongyan, the winner of the World Theatre Design Award, and Wei Heting, the animation designer, transformed the dancers' paintings into a part of the stage video, with interactive sparkling visual effects, making the image extremely dynamic and avant-garde creativity. "Xia" is not only a dance about life, but also a dance about brilliance. Mr. Zheng Zonglong said that he named the work "Xia" because he liked the morning light in the mountains, the kind of sunlight that makes the clouds colorful. He believes that people's state of mind is also like clouds, sometimes there is haze, sometimes there is sunshine, as long as there is a ray of light down, it will let us see the beauty and hope of life.
Faced with such a spectacular scene as the "Gate of the Heavenly Dome", Zheng Zonglong decided to integrate into the atmosphere of the bustling fireworks in real life, add a colorful touch to the time and years, and present a dazzling "dawn", inviting everyone to come to the National Centre for the Performing Arts - Opera House from December 7 to December 10, 2023 to enjoy it together.