I had the best seat in the house last night. No, I was not sitting next to Ken. I was right behind Mr. Lin and his assistant! Apparently he sits in the audience in all performances and takes notes for dancers to work on the next day and to further polish their performance, even after numerous performances since its premier in Taipei in November 2010. Mr. Lin’s perfectionism is hard to match. (Well, Steve Jobs would smile and approve.)

Cloud Gate dancers are trained 8 hours a day on various forms in western ballet, Chinese opera basics, Tai-Chi, meditations, and more! The combination of all these forms in harmony are the signature of Mr. Lin’s choreography in the Cursive series that won high acclaims internationally. In this piece, Mr. Lin moves it up another notch and drops imitations of calligraphy as well as constraints of all dance forms. No stories, no props, no colors (except many shades of black ink/cloud on the white rice paper/stage/sky), and minimal music in the first half. What’s left is the purity, energy, a piece of mind, and body movement!

Another master piece, indeed.

Thank you for the enlightening thoughts. I have gained an entirely new prospective to this master piece.