Autumn River

Lin's Autumn River proved to be a poignant love song.

Framed against the projection of a shallow, rippling river, the five women quietly move in steps and patterns that evoke their performances in earlier works such as Moon Water, Rice and Formosa, while a long, demanding solo for Huang Mei-ya brought back memories of her duet in Bamboo Dream.

Like with Moon Water, the audience begins to breathe along with the dancers as they gently dip and rise.

The audience was so quiet during the piece it was if they were willing it not to end, but end it did, to an explosion of claps, whistles and cheers.

Autumn River is a lovely sendoff for such great dancers, and for Lin.
Taipei Times

Lin's Autumn River has the sense of an elegy; a goodbye, although that's probably a function of the context and Arvo Pärt's familiar Spiegel im Spiegel as anything else.

Ethan Wang's beautifully soothing projections of video by Howell Chang He-man of red autumn leaves in a gin clear shallow stream in Kyoto, Japan, the sun glinting on the fine gravel of the river bed. It is sublimely delicious.

Equally beautiful and heavenly are the five dancers. Lin's choreography is delicate and nuanced with occasional connections between individuals.

The five move quietly, often walking slowly as if remembering. They melt and bend gracefully. They ripple like the water in the projections behind that dwarf them. Sometimes they move as a group. A small shoal of fish, perhaps, occasionally darting as they are startled by something.
SeeingDance

Autumn River

Choreography 
Lin Hwai-min      

Music 
Arvo Pärt

Costume Design 
Lin Ching-ju        

Lighting Design
Lulu W.L. Lee       

Videography        
Chang Hao-jan  

Projection Design 
Ethan Wang        

Performed by
Chou Chang-ning  Huang Pei-hua 
Huang Mei-ya   Yang I-chun  Su I-ping   

Premiere                
October 29, 2016
Cloud Gate Theater, Tamsui, Taiwan

Recorded           
October 20, 2019, Taipei, Taiwan

Visited venues include
Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai, China
National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China
Shandong Provincial Capital Culture and Art Center Grand Theatre, jinan, China
Hangzhou Grand Theatre, Hangzhou, China
Sichuan Grand Theatre,
Banlam Grand Theater, Amoy, China
Jiangsu Centre for the Performing Arts, Nanjing, Chengdu, China

Music is used by arrangement with and permission of MÜST and Brilliant Classics.  ●