Amazing grace: 45 years of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre – in pictures

A Taiwanese company with a national day – 21 August – and a street named after it, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre combine dance, martial arts, meditation and calligraphy in beautiful visual spectaculars


  • Formosa will be Lin Hwai-min’s swansong work for the company before he steps down in 2019. He began the company in 1973.
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    Formosa will be Lin Hwai-min’s swansong work for the company before he steps down in 2019. He began the company in 1973. Formosa is described as ‘a love letter to Taiwan’.


  • Named after the word 16th-century sailors used to describe Taiwan, Formosa (‘beautiful’ in Portuguese) will be performed in London this month.
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    Named after the word 16th-century sailors used to describe Taiwan, Formosa (‘beautiful’ in Portuguese) will be performed in London this month.


  • Formosa is described as ‘a love letter to Taiwan’.
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    Formosa is described as ‘a love letter to Taiwan’.


  • Cloud Gate’s 1978 work Legacy depicted the pioneers of Taiwan and looked at the planting and harvesting of rice.
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    Cloud Gate’s 1978 work Legacy depicted the pioneers of Taiwan and looked at the planting and harvesting of rice.


  • Chou Chang-Ning and Hwang Sheng-Kae in 2004’s Bamboo Dream, with music by Arvo Pärt.
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    Chou Chang-Ning and Hwang Sheng-Kae in 2004’s Bamboo Dream, with music by Arvo Pärt.


  • ‘Cloud Gate have rarely looked this untrammelled, this fierce’ – wrote Judith Mackrell of Wild Cursive in 2007.
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    ‘Cloud Gate have rarely looked this untrammelled, this fierce’ – wrote Judith Mackrell of Wild Cursive in 2007.


  • Wild Cursive took inspiration from the ancient Chinese art of ‘wild calligraphy’.
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    Wild Cursive took inspiration from the ancient Chinese art of ‘wild calligraphy’.


  • ‘The whole company takes to the stage in a breathtaking display of their poised, cartwheeling, cat-leaping technique’ wrote Sanjoy Roy of White, a three-part work staged in London in 2011.
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    A scene from White III part of White by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Japan @ Sadler’s Wells. (Opening-9-11-11) ©Tristram Kenton 11/11 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com


  • Songs of the Wanderers was inspired by a trip that Lin took to Bodh Gaya in India, the place where Buddha attained his enlightenment.
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    Songs of the Wanderers was inspired by a trip that Lin took to Bodh Gaya in India, the place where Buddha attained his enlightenment.


  • Nine Songs was an eye-catching take on a series of classical poems by Qu Yuan, the father of Chinese poetry.
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    Nine Songs was an eye-catching take on a series of classical poems by Qu Yuan, the father of Chinese poetry.


  • Images of dancers are reflected in a mirror during a rehearsal of the 2008 production Whisper of Flowers.
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    Images of dancers are reflected in a mirror during a rehearsal of the 2008 production Whisper of Flowers.


  • ‘Lin’s choreography fuses the inward serenity of eastern movement with the dynamic shapes and lines of western dance,’ wrote Judith Mackrell of 2009’s Wind Shadow.
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    ‘Lin’s choreography fuses the inward serenity of eastern movement with the dynamic shapes and lines of western dance,’ wrote Judith Mackrell of 2009’s Wind Shadow.


  • Lin Hwai-min on Rice, staged in London in 2014: ‘When we were creating Rice, we took part in the harvesting in Chihshang. We got up at 5am and went out to the fields. It was a back-breaking experience. You can create work in a studio but the elements of nature stimulate you physically.’
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    Lin Hwai-min on Rice, staged in London in 2014: ‘When we were creating Rice, we took part in the harvesting in Chihshang. We got up at 5am and went out to the fields. It was a back-breaking experience. You can create work in a studio but the elements of nature stimulate you physically.’


  • Beckoning performed by Cloud Gate 2, which was formed in 1999 as the junior wing of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.
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    Beckoning performed by Cloud Gate 2, which was formed in 1999 as the junior wing of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.


  • Moon Water, staged in 2008, was set to music by Bach.
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    Moon Water, staged in 2008, was set to music by Bach.


  • Formosa is at Sadler’s Wells, London, from 9 to 12 May.
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    Formosa is at Sadler’s Wells, London, from 9 to 12 May.
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