Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Collected Cloud Gate media resources on the ed2k network

Please download and install eMule to be able to access the media resources referenced below...

For more information on Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, you can check the Wikipedia article.

Cursive II and Moon Water are obligatory viewing for everyone who's got taste!!!
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Cursive II
行草 貳


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ed2k: Cursive.II.avi [697.97 Mb]

ed2k: interview.avi [89.47 Mb]
ed2k: interview subtitles (EN,FR,DE,ES,IT).rar [938.4 Kb]

ed2k: documentary.avi [348.91 Mb]
ed2k: documentary subtitles (EN,FR,DE,ES,IT).rar [2.24 Mb]

A magnificent creation by Lin Hwai-min inspired by the art of Chinese calligraphy and set to music by no less than John Cage ("My God, John Cage's music could be so beautiful!..")

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Cursive II is a masterpiece by Lin Hwai-min, choreographer of the highly acclaimed Moon Water and Bamboo Dream. Inspired by the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, this work is both commanding and seductive. The superb Cloud Gate dancers, trained in meditation, Chi-Kung and martial arts, touch you with original movements, fierce as striking thunder or soft as flowing ink on rice paper. The complexity of energy is further enhanced by the music of John Cage, while the blown-up images of ‘ice crackles’ from Sung porcelain shimmer with delicate beauty. This production exquisitely filmed by dance expert Ross MacGibbon captures the meditative aura of the dance. It excites. It mesmerizes. You can never turn away an eye for one second.


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Cursive
行草


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ed2k: Cursive.avi [447.09 Mb]

The first part of Lin Hwai-min's calligraphic trilogy. According to the choreographer, this piece derives its inspiration from writing with thick dark ink, whereas the later Cursive II is dominated by lighter semi-transparent tones...



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Bamboo Dream
竹夢


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ed2k: Bamboo.Dream.avi [699.51 Mb]

ed2k: documentary.avi [131.68 Mb]
ed2k: English subtitles.srt [22.1 Kb]
ed2k: Chinese subtitles.rar [746.9 Kb]

A light-hearted, almost balletic work from Cloud Gate, choreographed by Lin Hwai-min between the monumental stillness of Moon Water and the glacial beauty of the calligraphic trilogy. Music by Arvo Pärt.

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Moon Water
水月




ed2k: Moon Water.avi [698.61 Mb]

ed2k: Behind the scenes.avi [90.74 Mb]
ed2k: English subtitles.srt [17.5 Kb]
ed2k: Chinese subtitles.rar [554.7 Kb]

I bet J.S.Bach would have never guessed what his cello suites had really been written for!!!

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Taiwan ’s first and leading contemporary dance company brings together a fabulous blend of Eastern and Western dance styles in the performance called Moon Water.

To the Chinese, Moon Water, is reminiscent of two things: one is a Buddhist proverb, ‘Flowers in a mirror and moon on the water are both illusive’ and the other describes the ideal state of a tai-chi practitioner ‘Energy flows as water, while the spirit shines as the moon.’

Choreographer Lin Hwai Min’s entrancing Moon Water is based in tai-chi which gives it a natural rhythm and a visible pulse from the energy of breathing that propels one action smoothly towards the next and recalls the swell and ebb of a river. Moon Water is profoundly simple. Circles of stage design and movement, identical white silk costumes for men and women, a watery black set opening up to a panoply of silvery mirrors and a flowing continuity in the style and structure of the dance, all performed to J.S. Bach’s solo cello suites.

By translating and metamorphosing the essence of traditional Chinese physical exercise into a blend of dance and theatre, Lin Hwai Min has created another milestone in the development of dance.


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Portraits of the Families
家族合唱


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ed2k: Portraits of the Families.avi [699.97 Mb]
ed2k: English subtitles.srt [39.0 Kb]
ed2k: Chinese subtitles.rar [370.3 Kb]
ed2k: Russian subtitles.srt [36.5 Kb]

Taiwanese history would have been complicated enough even for a much bigger country, comprising a number of colonizations, occupations and transition of power between former political and military rivals. In Portraits of the Families, Lin Hwai-min and Cloud Gate Theater committed themselves to explore these somber issues in an abstract form through the medium of modern and folklore dance, pantomime and visual installation.

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Songs of the Wanderers
流浪者之歌


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ed2k: Songs of the Wanderers.avi [699.32 Mb]

ed2k: documentary.avi [144.42 Mb]
ed2k: English subtitles.srt [19.5 Kb]
ed2k: Chinese subtitles.rar [692.1 Kb]

Cloud Gate's Buddhist work inspired by Lin Hwai-min's pilgrimage to India and Herman Hesse's Siddhartha.

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Nine Songs
九歌


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ed2k: Nine Songs.avi [700.88 Mb]

A dazzlingly colorful and sensuous folklore work by Cloud Gate Theatre...

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My Nostalgia, My Songs
我的鄉愁,我的歌




ed2k: My Nostalgia, My Songs.avi [427.75 Mb]

My Nostalgia (first staged in 1986) attempts to view the life of young Taiwanese people through the world of old pop songs. This performance has been photographed by no less than Chris Doyle!

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Legacy
薪傳


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ed2k: Legacy.avi [700.92 Mb]

An early work by Lin Hwai-min and Cloud Gate Theatre inspired by the opening pages of Sino-Taiwanese history.

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The Tale of the White Serpent
白蛇傳


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ed2k: The Tale of the White Serpent.avi [272.42 Mb]

One of the very first works by Lin Hwai-min, most directly indebted to Beijing opera.

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Keywords: modern dance, Beijing Pekin opera, tai chi, kung fu, ballet, 228 incident, calligraphy, brush, ink, erotic, expressionism, porcelain, poetry, Taiwan, China, PRC, ROC, KMT, CCP, communism, nationalism, floating on the ground, martial arts, Buddha; 雲門舞集, 云门舞集, 林懷民, 羅曼菲, 李靜君, 蔡銘元, 吳俊憲, 林佳良; P2P, MPEG4, performance arts, recording, movie, DVD