Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theatre” (The Times, UK), returns to BAM with Rice, which its Artistic
Director Lin Hwai-min choreographed to mark the company’s 40th anniversary.

In Rice, a lone dancer enters the dark stage. As he steadily walks across it, dangling a long bamboo stick held horizontally, the back curtain gradually rises to reveal a video image of rain-soaked soil. The video, filmed on location over the full cycle of rice cultivation, transforms the bare stage into the organic rice paddies of Chihshang in southeastern Taiwan. Moving against this sumptuous vista, 24 dancers create a movement-scape that evokes the images of farmers, rice stalks, pollination, water, wind, fire, and the pain and joy of new life.

Lin Hwai-min has referenced rice in his previous works, mostly notably Legacy (1978) and Songs of the Wanderers (1994, performed at the Next Wave Festival in 2000). But Rice is more lyrical and less realistic. Its movements are a synthesis of Western modern dance, ballet, and martial arts. The alternation of Hakka folk songs, drumming, and Western classical music also shows this cross-culture pollination. As part of the creative process, dancers worked in the field alongside the farmers. Lin said it was a “back-breaking experience. But we got in touch with the wind and the sun, the drizzle of rain and the mud and the soil. You can create work in a studio but the elements of nature stimulate you physically.” The dance is a lyrical ode to the land and people integral to Cloud Gate during its prosperous 40-year journey. ‘)}