2025 Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan Sounding Light

As was the case for so many people, the Covid pandemic prompted Cloud Gate Artistic Director CHENG Tsung-lung to consider afresh the world around him. During a period of enforced self isolation in Taiwan, at a time when human activity and noise pollution were at a minimum, he listened to the sounds of the forest -- the insects, the birds, the wind through the trees -- and reflected on the balance between, and the frailties of, human life and the natural environment.

In SOUNDING LIGHT, played out under the arc of the sun shining through clouds and trees over the course of a day, CHENG has integrated sound and dance, but not in the form of a separate soundtrack and performance.

Here the dancers themselves provide much of the soundtrack as a natural element of their performance. As the dancers move to suggest the mating rituals of birds or insect-like contortions so their bodies become instruments. Working with composers LIM Giong and CHANG Shiuan they utilize voice and breath, the sounds, if not meanings, of Taiwanese dialects, finger clicks and hand claps, the slapping of their bodies, and the stage. From this extraordinary sound palette the dancers create the impression of the breeze, of insects and birds, of falling rain and of running water, and their bodies - testing the limits of physical and mental focus - ultimately reveal the essence of both the human and natural worlds while simultaneously merging them. <More details...>