Modern Dance Company Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan Come to LA

Sandra Miska

Los Angeles will be transported to the other side of the world when Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan comes to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Jan. 29-31. This dance company blends meditation and modern arts with contemporary dance.

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan will be making its debut at the Music Center with its production “Rice,” which is set in the rice fields of the Chih Sheng valley in Taiwan. The show depicts workers and the cycles of weather.

Choreographer Lin Hwai-min founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Taiwan’s first professional dance company in 1973. Hwai-min draws inspiration from modern Western dance and Chinese tradition. He currently shares management of the company with his protégé, choreographer Lo Man-fei. The company has toured all over the world and are so loved in their native country that the government declared August 21, 2003 Cloud Gate Day.

The troupe was almost ruined for good in 2008 after a fire destroyed their studio, including costumes, props and records. However, $12 million in donations and a grant of land by the government allowed them to rebuild.

“Rice” is Cloud Gate’s 40th anniversary show. Check out this video to get a taste of what to expect at this unique show celebrating nature. This piece was performed in New York in the fall of 2015, and The New York Times was there to take it in:

“The choreography, by the troupe’s founder and artistic director, Lin Hwai-min, is in his signature style of Martha Graham meets martial arts, a calligraphic flow of gradual accumulations, slow motion and controlled explosions of speed. Wind through the grass, pollen adrift: This Mr. Lin can do very well. The show is never less than picturesque.”

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan will perform “Rice” Jan. 29-31 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in DTLA.