Sounding Light

Top of 2020 dance productions in Taiwan

As if a David Attenborough documentary had come to life in front of you….
A beautifully crafted work and one that will bear repeated viewings.
Taipei Times

A salute to the Mother Nature, leaving the entire stage to the primal part of dancing — dancers’ bodies and sounds made with their bodies.
The News Lens

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 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 together.

Sounding Light

Concept / Choreography     
Cheng Tsung-lung

Music           
Lim Giong

Sound and Voice
Chang Shiuan

Lighting Design           
Lulu W.L. Lee

Costume Design           
Chen Shao-yen

Music Director of Cloud Gate   
Liang Chun-mei

Performed by 
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

Premiere          
October 1, 2020     Taipei, Taiwan

Recorded
October 23, 2020   Taichung, Taiwan