Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Of Taiwan - Songs of the Wanderers

Legend has it that "Cloud Gate" is the name of the oldest known dance in China, a ritualistic dance which was supposed to have been performed more than 5000 years ago. In 1973 the choreographer Lin Hwai-min used this classical name for the company he founded, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, which was the first company in the Chinese speaking part of the world to dedicate itself to the modern dance theatre.

In the last scene of the piece Songs of the Wanderers, the audience patiently waits while a young man who is lost in thought slowly moves a rake in spiral movements over the stage which is covered in rice. His movements summarise the events on stage of the previous ninety minutes: a mental pilgrimage without beginning and without end . . .