13 TONGUES. Performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. Photo by LIU Chen-hsiang
Artistic Credits
Cloud Gate Culture and Arts Foundation
Chairman
Stan SHIH
Board of Directors
HSU Sheng-hsiung
Barry LAM
Simon LIN
LIN Hwai-min
Jamie LIN
TSAI Hong-tu
Rick TSAI
TSENG F.C
TSENG F.C
Kate Huei-wen WEN
Eric YAO
Diane YING
Executive Director
Kathy HONG
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Founder
LIN Hwai-min
Artistic Director
CHENG Tsung-lung
Associate Artistic Director
LEE Ching-chun
Rehearsal Director
YANG Ling-kai
Rehearsal Assistant
HUANG Mei-ya
Rehearsal Assistant
WU Jui-ying
Rehearsal Assistant
YEH Po-sheng
Qi Gong Master
HSIUNG Wei
Qi Gong Master
LEE Guo-wei
Internal Marital Arts Master
Adam Chi HSU
Internal Martial Arts Master
CHEN Chun-lung
Ballet Teacher
LIN Li-chuan
Ballet Teacher
WU Ching-yin
Modern Dance Teacher
HUANG Pei-hua
Modern Dance Teacher
TSAI Ming-yuan
Popping Teacher
Popping ED
Accompanist
HONG Jia-ling
Accompanist
KUO Tsung-han
Accompanist
LIANG Chun-mei
Accompanist
WU Jia-jin
Dancers
CHEN Mu-han
HOU Tang-li
HUANG Mei-ya
LEE Tzu-chun
WU Jui-ying
YEH Po-sheng
CHAN Pui pui
CHEN Lien-wei
CHEN Tsung-chiao
CHOU Chen-yeh
FAN Chia-hsuan
HSU Chih-hen
HUANG Lu-kai
HUANG Po-kai
HUANG Yen-cheng
SHAO Hsing-wen
YEN Hsueh-hsin
CHANG Hung-mao
CHANG Pei-cheng
HUANG Hsiang-ting
WANG Chun-hung
Apprentices
LIN Sin-yu
Annette Lyn SEOW
WU Tsung-yang
Administrative Staff on Tour
Project Manager
CHUANG Ting-chi
Project Assistant
TSENG Mei-hua (Margaux)
Technical Staff on Tour
Deputy Production Director
CHUNG Pin-yueh (Jason)
Stage Manager
CHEN Chia-ju
Technical Director
KAO Tang-chieh
Lighting Supervisor
TSENG Yen-min
Wardrobe Supervisor
HSU Wen-wen
Swing Technician
YANG Buo-an
Sound Engineer
LIOU Yun-chang
Run Time
60 minutes
Audience Advice
Please turn off all cellphones, photo/video cameras
13 TONGUES
As a child in the 1980s Cloud Gate Artistic Director CHENG Tsung-lung would contribute to the family business by helping his father sell slippers on the streets of Bangka/Wanhua, the oldest district of Taipei. Bangka/Wanhua was known for its vibrantly diverse and bustling street scene that embraced religious and secular life, rich and poor, work and play, legal and illegal activities. The young CHENG was transfixed by his mother’s accounts of the legendary 1960s street artist and storyteller known as “Thirteen Tongues” who had adopted Bangka/Wanhua for his informal stage. It was said that “Thirteen Tongues'' could conjure up all the Bangka/Wanhua characters - high and low born, sacred and profane, men and women - in the most vivid, dramatic, and fluently imaginative narratives. Thirty years on CHENG’s fascination for “Thirteen Tongues” became his inspiration as he transformed his childhood memories into dance.
Beginning and ending with the sound of a single hand bell, the music accompanying 13 TONGUES ranges from Taiwanese folk songs to Taoist chant to electronica. The stage is awash with projections of brilliant colours, shapes, and images and the dancers gather, interact, separate and re-gather in a thrilling representation of the clamour of street life. As the religious heritage of ancient Bangka/Wanhua fuses with the secular space it is today so time appears to dissolve. The spirit realm and the human realm also coalesce as the audience is taken on an immersive journey - via imagination and storytelling that recalls the art of “Thirteen Tongues” - through centuries of human endeavour, behaviour, and belief.
Choreography CHENG Tsung-lung
Music LIM Giong
Art Design HO Chia-hsing
Lighting Design SHEN Po-hung
Projection Design Ethan WANG
Costume Design LIN Bing-hao
Voice Coach TSAI Pao-chang
Premiere March 11, 2016
Taiwan International Festival of Arts at National Theater, Taipei, Taiwan
Commission National Theater & Concert Hall, Taipei
CAST (in alphabetical order)
CHAN Pui pui
CHANG Hung-mao
CHEN Tsung-chiao
CHOU Chen-yeh
FAN Chia-hsuan
HSU Chih-hen
HUANG Lu-kai
HUANG Mei-ya
HUANG Po-kai
HUANG Yen-cheng
LEE Tzu-chun
SHAO Hsing-wen
YEN Hsueh-hsin
This tour is made possible in part by grants from the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan).
About the Company
Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance in China. In 1973, choreographer LIN Hwai-min adopted this classical name and founded the first contemporary dance company in the greater Chinese-speaking community: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, also known worldwide as Cloud Gate. In 2020, CHENG Tsung-lung succeeded LIN as the company’s Artistic Director. In 2023, Cloud Gate celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Cloud Gate has set out to engage with local history, culture, and subject matter and draws on classical, folk, and modern dance from both Western and Asian traditions. Its dancers trained in meditation, Qi Gong, an ancient breathing exercise; internal martial arts, modern dance, and ballet. Under the leadership of CHENG, their training has further expanded to include training from various styles of dance, such as street dance. Manifesting in choreographies, the company transforms ancient aesthetics into a thrilling and modern celebration of motion.
Cloud Gate has received international acclaim as “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theater” (The Times), and “One of the best dance companies in the world” (FAZ). Cloud Gate is also honored as the “Outstanding Company” for the 2018 National Dance Awards, UK.
The company has toured worldwide with frequent engagements at the Next Wave Festival in New York, the Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, the Moscow Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Russia, the Movimentos International Dance Festival, and the Internationales Tanzfest NRW, directed by the late Pina Bausch in Germany.
Cloud Gate has also danced into local campuses and grassroots communities. Its annual free outdoor performances staged across Taiwan in cities and villages draw a minimum of 30,000 people per performance, hailed as one of the biggest dance events on Earth.
Biographies
CHENG Tsung-lung
From street hawker selling slippers to internationally recognized choreographer, CHENG Tsung-lung succeeded LIN Hwai-min as Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan starting in 2020.
CHENG took his first dance class at the age of 8. Upon graduation from the Dance Department at Taipei National University of the Arts, he joined Cloud Gate in 2002 and became the Artistic Director of Cloud Gate 2 in 2014.
CHENG has been awarded prestigious prizes for his choreography internationally as well as at home, such as the No Ballet International Choreography Competition (Germany), the Premio Roma Danza International Choreography Competition (Italy), the MASDANZA Choreography Competition (Spain) and the Taishin Arts Award (Taiwan). He has also worked with companies worldwide, including Sydney Dance Company, the Transitions Dance Company at the Laban Centre, London, Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
CHENG’s work is deeply rooted in both ancient and modern Taiwanese culture — and he is a strong supporter of Cloud Gate’s extensive engagement with grassroots audiences across Taiwan— yet it also embraces global influences. He is praised by the Stage Newspaper with “an eye for a cinematic moment.” His 13 TONGUES (2016) integrates folk dance, religious rites, and Taoist chant to conjure the streets where he worked as a child. Lunar Halo (2019) is performed to an ethereally haunting soundtrack by Icelandic musician Sigur Rós and explores the complex area of human connection and technology. Sounding Light (2020) was written in response to COVID-19 pandemic-induced isolation and reflects on the precariousness of both the human and the natural world. Visually stunning, Send In A Cloud (2022) displays in shifting colors a panorama of dancers’ life journeys. The most recent choreography WAVES (2023), a collaboration with Japanese media artist Daito MANABE, explores societal and individual facets affected by the rapid progress of technological advancements.
CHENG has been a fixture of Routledge’s respected annual survey of dance practitioners, Fifty Contemporary Choreographers (2020), alongside the likes of William Forsythe, Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter, and leaders in the form.
Photo by: LEE Chia-yeh
Staff Credits
Juan Anez
Omni Technician
Jess Brenders
Senior Program Delivery Specialist
Brendan Briceland
Head of Projection
Kirsty Conroy
Technical Director
Lyle Fish
Head of Sound
Sharon Fish
Assistant Head Stage Carpenter
Matt Flawn
Head of Lighting
Marissa Gell
Production Coordinator
Lorelee Godden
Stage Carpenter
Samantha Hindle
Assistant Head of Sound
Georgia Jeffery
Lighting Technician
Tambry Kopp
Senior Program Manager
Pui Leung
Lighting Technician
Darrell Shaw
Assistant Head of Lighting
Andrew Smith
Production Manager