A lunar halo appears when the moonlight is refracted by 22 degrees through millions of ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, while in ancient folklore, it is also a sign foreboding something ominous is going to happen....
In collaboration with Sigur Rós and Kjartan Holm in music, CHENG Tsung-lung uses this natural phenomenon to create LUNAR HALO, raising a major question of our own existence to this fast-changing digital world: Do we still need our physical bodies and senses if we only use our eyes and fingertips for experience?
While images and videos are displayed by three large, luminescent LED screens, dancers morph into concrete symbols of struggles, desires, loneliness, hope, and love. LUNAR HALO provokes strong physiological arousal, making all our senses vibrate, and generates an exotic universe of bodily beauty and intellectual anxiety.
Choreography | CHENG Tsung-lung
Music | Sigur Rós
Music Direction | Kjartan Holm
Visual Design and Direction | Jam WU
Lighting Design | SHEN Po-Hung
Video Design | Ethan WANG
Costume Design | CHEN Shao-yen
Commission: National Performing Arts Center, Taiwan R.O.C. –
National Theater & Concert Hall,
National Taichung Theater,
National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuyin).
Premiere: April 13, 2019, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuyin), Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Approx. 70 minutes without intermission
About Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Founded in 1973 by internationally renowned choreographer, LIN Hwai-min, Cloud Gate is acclaimed as “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theater” (The Times), and “One of the finest dance companies in the world” (The Globe and Mail). While touring extensively worldwide, Cloud Gate holds regular seasons in theaters at home, and stages annual free outdoor performances in cities and villages of Taiwan, drawing an average of 30,000 people per performance. From 2020, CHENG Tsung-lung succeeded LIN as the artistic director of Cloud Gate.
Watch Cloud Gate Dance Theatre |《Lunar Halo》
Photo by LIU Chen-hsiang