Shanghai Daily news

Cast members of the Cloud Gate Dance Theater with founder Lin Hwai-min (left) — who is also the creator of the dance version of “A Dream of Red Mansions” — bid farewell to Shanghai from the stage of the Grand Theater after the final performance of the “Dream” last weekend. — Wang Rongjiang

Over the past 22 years, audiences around the world have applauded the dance version of the Chinese literary classic, "A Dream of Red Mansions," but in Shanghai last weekend, it had its final performance, writes Michelle Qiao.
The final curtain came down last weekend on the stunningly beautiful Cloud Gate Dance Theater production of "A Dream of Red Mansions," but the performance will stay in the memories of the Shanghai audience forever.
The two performances in the Shanghai Grand Theater last week were the final ones for the production which has been performed 50 times around the world since it was launched in 1983. A Taiwan audience sat in the rain for two hours last August at the farewell performance of the dance drama on the island.
Lin hwai-min, the founder of the Cloud Gate Dance Theater, made the decision to close down the show.
"Cloud Gate and I have outgrown this production which has 10,000 details and is so tiring," says Lin. "The farewell to the dance reminds me of a Chinese poem about lotus leaves which says that life is all about the joy of birth and the sorrow of passing away."
The dance drama was inspired by one of the four greatest classic novels of ancient China - Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) author Cao Xueqin's work - and follows the lives of the members of several large and wealthy families.
Lin, who was described as "Asia's Hero" in Time Asia Magazine this year, says that people unfamiliar with the original work would still be able to understand the dance version.
"Dance may not be good at telling a narrative but it is good at creating an atmosphere," says Lin. "I have tried to show the youth and death of a young girl, and through the metaphor of the four seasons, the life and death of a family.
"But the only thing I want to do right now is to go home and sleep or maybe go and live in a desert in Africa. I don't want to write any more. I want to read a lot of books, watch DVDs and listen to music.
"I love a variety of artistic forms but I've never been able to get in the mood for rock. It's a great pity that I didn't learn to rock in my younger days.
"Now, all I want to do is live without having any responsibilities for a while."
Court dances
Born in Taiwan in 1947, the gray-haired, spectacled Lin started writing novels at the age of 14 and had his first book published at 22. After attending an international writers' workshop at the University of Iowa in the United States, Lin sought out modern dance icon Martha Graham in New York and became a student at her school.
Later he studied the classical court dances of Japan and South Korea. Returning home, he established the Cloud Gate Dance Theater in 1973, the first contemporary dance company in Taiwan.
"I think Lin has brilliantly fused dance techniques and theatrical concepts from East and West, and that's why Cloud Gate has remained so successful and so popular," says local music critic Wang Shu, a big Cloud Gate fan who has a VCD collection of all Cloud Gate's dance productions.
Cloud gate is the name of the oldest known ritual dance in China, one which dates back to around 3,000 BC. Lin has based Cloud Gate's repertoire on Asian myths, folklore, and aesthetics but has given these ancient tales and artistic sensibilities a distinctively contemporary twist.
"Personally I love this dance version of 'A Dream of Red Mansions' a lot because I like seeing so many colorful beauties," says Lin. "And the set is very beautiful, like an oil painting. However, this grand production requires at least 25 dancers and the regular Cloud Gate troupe numbers just over a dozen. I have to recruit new dancers. It's very hard to control the quality and balance between veteran dancers and newcomers."
The cloud Gate Dance Theater has enjoyed high acclaim at home in Taiwan since its foundation. The theater performs regularly in venues ranging from the prestigious theaters in Taipei to high-school auditoriums in remote villages. Free outdoor performances draw audiences of 30,000 people even on rainy days and up to 80,000 when the weather is fine. Cloud Gate had also made many overseas tours.
"It's a hard job to be a Cloud Gate dancer," says Ching-chon Lee, who has been a dancer in the theater since 1983 when she was only 17.
Lee danced the role of the girl in red clothes in "A Dream of Red Mansions."
"The dancers have to practice eight hours a day, learn Chinese boxing, tai chi, meditation, Chinese opera movements, ballet and contemporary dance. If it sounds very complicated it is because the dancers have to master every school but still be able to mix them together naturally," she says.
Recently, Lin began concentrating on a new dance entitled "Cursive III," the final installment of his "Calligraphy Trilogy."
The fabulous embroidered costumes designed according to Peking and Kunqu Opera costumes for "A Dream of Red Mansions" will be put on display in museums.
"They were made in 1983 and nowadays nobody wants to do such delicate embroidery any more. It's so complicated that every leaf has four to five colors - it's very complex," Lin says.
"At my age I still have two or three mountains to climb. I cannot always be looking back - I have to move on. I'm only interested in 'potential' and 'possibilities.' If I'm clear of everything, I won't do a job. The fun is all about adventure. I like 'vague' or 'seemingly.' I don't want to be disturbed by ghosts from 20 years ago."
Well, sometimes artists have to say good-bye to past glories to create something new.
Maybe this beautiful version of "A Dream of Red Mansions" has gone from the stage forever, but surely there is more than just a "vague potential" of more dream-like creations coming from Cloud Gate.