Moon Water

Best Dance of the Year      The New York Times
Best Choreography           Lyon Biennial Dance Festival

No company in the world dances like Cloud Gate.

Moon Water presents a distinct and mature Chinese choreographic language. The importance of this evolution in Asian dance is no less profound than the impact of Forsythe's Ballett Frankfurt on European classical ballet.
Dance Europe

Mr. Lin has accomplished what creative artists rarely succeed in doing today: challenging the audience with a work unlike any other.

Moon Water evoked a journey towards purification. The piece...was not about meditation; it was a meditation in itself.

The tour de force is the way Mr. Lin has extended and transformed the movement of tai chi exercises into an expressive dance vocabulary. . . . Unexpectedly, this syncretic fusion of a codified Asian movement vocabulary with Bach's Baroque dance forms is a perfect fit. 
The New York Times

Moon Water is a dream of a show, one of the most ravishing things I've seen in a theatre.
The Daily Telegraph

The 70-minute production is a sublime ascetic spectacle with a spiritual dimension. . . . [The dancers'] concentration, clarity of purpose and control are exemplary, and their physical plasticity extraordinary. Rather than merely duplicating Bach's tempi and tones, they reach inside his music from the core of their own bodies.
The Times

In Moon Water, Bach's cello compositions (performed by Misha Maisky) and Lin Hwai-min's Tai Chi movements give the impression that have been waiting for each other for centuries.

Moon Water reflects the relationship between appearance and essence, effort and effortlessness, man and woman. It is a strikingly beautiful and lyrical piece. Within its 70-minute duration, a unique cosmos unravels where a completely different feeling of time reigns.

Near the end water flows onto the stage and the mirror at upstage opens up, the entire stage is transformed into a mirrored cabinet. Reality and appearance melt inseparably into each other. In an unforgettable final image, the dancers seem to move as though on clouds in a celestial landscape—magically removed from all worldliness.

There is nothing this season to compare with its sublime beauty.
Ballet International

By translating and metamorphosing the essence of traditional Chinese physical exercise into a blend of dance and theatre, [Lin Hwai-min] has created yet another milestone in the development of 20^th-century dance.

At the end of the piece, it was a while before the audience dared to break the silence with applause, having been witness to a performance of rare beauty.
The Arts Magazine

A deeply beautiful work that makes you appreciate all the praise heaped on Lin Hwai-min as choreographer and artistic director of this outstanding company from Taiwan.
The Sydney Morning Herald

Moon Water

Choreography
LIN Hwai-min

Music             
Selections from Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach

Lighting Design            
CHANG Tsan-tao

Set Design             
Austin WANG

Costume Design          
LIN Ching-ju

Performed by            
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan            

Premiere
November 18, 1998, Taipei, Taiwan

Recorded
September 27, 2008, Taipei, Taiwan

Visited venues include
Deutsche Oper Berlin, Germany
Kulturabteilung Bayer, Leverkusen, Germany
Dance 2000(Munich Int'l Modern Dance Festival), Munich, Germany
Theater im Pfalzbau, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Forum am Schlosspark, Ludwigsburg, Germany
Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Dresden, Germany
Internationale Maifestspiele, Wiesbaden, Germany
Festspielhaus, Baden-Baden, Germany
Sadler's Wells Theatre, London, England
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Scotland, England, UK
Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham, England, UK
The Lowry, Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK
Milton Keynes Theatre, Central Milton, England, UK
Lyon Biennale De La Danse, Lyon, France
Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Moscow, Russia
Internationaler Tanzsommer, Innsbruck, Austria
Baseltanzt, Basel, Switzerland
Sintra Festival, Portugal
Teatro Arriaga, Bilbao, Spain
Teatro de Madrid, Festival Internacional Madrid en Danza, Madrid, Spain
Grec Festival, Barcelona, Spain
Teatro Regio, Parmadanza Festival, Parma, Italy
Alexandra Trianti Hall, Megaron, Athens, Greece
Grieghallen, Bergen International Festival, Bergen, Norway
Tanec Praha / The Prague Spring Festival, Prague, Czech Republic
Dance Forum, National Dance Theatre, Budapest, Hungary
Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, California, USA
Royal Hall, UCLA, California, USA
BAM Next Wave Festival, New York, USA
Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago, USA
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., USA
2010 Cultural Olympiad, Vancouver, Canada
Salle Wilfred-Pelletier at Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada
Auditorio del Esdato de Guanajuato, Festival Internacional Gervantino, Guanajuato, Mexico
Teatro Alfa, São Paulo, Brazil
Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, Sydney, Australia   
Brisbane Festival, Australia
Shinjuku Bunka Centre, Tokyo, Japan
The World Exposition EXPO Dome, Aichi, Japan
Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay, Singapore
International Festival of Dance and Music, Bangkok, Thailand
Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila, the Philippines
Hong Kong Cultural Center, Hong Kong
Macau Cultural Centre, Macau
Poly Theatre, Beijing, China
National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China
Friendship Theatre, Guangzhou, China
Guangzhou Opera House, China
7th China Arts Festival, Hangzhou, ChinaQingdao Grand Theatre, China
Fujian Grand Theatre, Fuzhou, China
Qingdao Grand Theatre, Qingdao, China

Music is used by arrangement with and permission of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH.