Esplanade Presents | da:ns focus - Connect Asia Now
Sounding Light by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Fri, 16 Oct 2026 - Sat, 17 Oct 2026, 8pm, Esplanade Theatre
Sound and dance merge with one another; the body emancipates itself and becomes an instrument. – Stuttgarter Zeitung
Cloud Gate leaves you sitting breathlessly on the edge of your chair. – San Jose Mercury News
This is a company that you will enjoy, fall in love with, and want to see again. – Ballet-Dance Magazine
Internationally acclaimed and beloved worldwide, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre returns to Singapore with another stunning tapestry of movement, inspired by the sounds, shapes and fluidity of nature.
Created during the pandemic, Sounding Light begins from a renewed act of listening.
Inspired by the forest—its insects, birds, and the wind moving through trees—this work choreographed by Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung reflects on the shifting (im)balance between human civilisation and the natural world.
The choreography traces the passage of a single day. Sunlight moves, clouds gather, and shadows of leaves drift across space. Time is shaped through changing light, rhythm, and atmosphere.
Sound is created live on stage. The dancers become both movers and musicians, using breath, voice, finger snaps, and clapping in collaboration with composers Lim Giong and Chang Shiuan.
Movement and sound intertwine. Gestures echo birds and insects; bodies turn into instruments. Together, they evoke wind, rain, and flowing water—forming a world that is both seen and heard.
Premiered internationally at Kunstfest Weimar and HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden in 2024, the work has since been widely acclaimed and continues to tour internationally.
This programme is presented as part of da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN), a weekend that spotlights contemporary dance works created by or in collaboration with Asian artists, focusing on distinct voices and creative impulses from the region.
Duration
65 minutes (approximately)
with no intermission
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Of Taiwan
Cloud Gate is the name of the oldest known dance in China. Founded in 1973 by choreographer Lin Hwai-min, Cloud Gate became the first contemporary dance company in the Chinese-speaking world. In 2020, Cheng Tsung-lung succeeded Lin as Artistic Director, bringing together a deep grounding in tradition with perspectives shaped by the digital and globalised world. Cloud Gate celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.
Drawing on classical, folk, and modern dance traditions from both Western and Asian cultures, Cloud Gate engages closely with history, society, and lived experience. Its dancers are trained in meditation, qi gong (an ancient breathing practice), internal martial arts, modern dance, and ballet, with training further expanded under Cheng to include a wider range of movement practices such as street dance. Through its choreography, the company transforms ancient aesthetics into a contemporary language of movement.
Cloud Gate has toured extensively worldwide and is widely recognized as “Asia’s leading contemporary dance theater” (The Times), and “one of the best dance companies in the world” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). The company was also honored with the “Outstanding Company” award at the 2018 UK National Dance Awards.
Cheng Tsung-Lung
Artistic Director / Choreographer
Cheng Tsung-lung became the Artistic Director of the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in 2020 when he succeeded founder Lin Hwai-min.
As a child, he sold slippers on the streets of Taipei, and his experiences of street life and folk and religious cultures have shaped a choreography known for its vivid engagement with the richness and diversity of human experience.
Praised by The Stage as a choreographer with “an eye for a cinematic moment, ” Cheng has received recognition both internationally and in Taiwan, collaborating with dance companies and artists around the world. His recent creations for Cloud Gate include 13 Tongues (2016), which evokes the vibrant streets of his childhood through folk dance and Taoist chant; Lunar Halo (2019), set to music by Sigur Rós, hailed by The Telegraph as “a luminously and bleakly beautiful take on the internet-infested 21st century”; Sounding Light (2020), reflecting the solitude of the pandemic era; Send in a Cloud (2022), a poetic meditation on the passage of life through shifting colors; WAVES (2023), co-created with Japanese digital artist Daito Manabe, exploring the intricate entanglement between technology and humanity; and his most recent work, All Ears (2025), which invites audiences to discover movement through deep listening.
Cheng is a fixture in Routledge’s respected annual survey of leading dance practitioners, Fifty Contemporary Choreographers (2020), alongside the likes of William Forsythe, Akram Khan, and other leaders in the field.
Lin Hwai-Min
Founder
Lin Hwai-min founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan in 1973 and has led the company to international prominence through his thrilling creations that transform Asian aesthetics into a contemporary celebration of motion.
Among the honors Lin Hwai-min has received are the Samuel H. Scripps /American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the John D. Rockefeller Award, New York; the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters, France; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Movimentos International Dance Festival, Germany. He has also been celebrated by Time magazine as one of “Asia’s Heroes”.
At the end of 2019, Lin Hwai-min stepped down as the Artistic Director of Cloud Gate and handed the reins of the company to Cheng Tsung-lung.
声音与舞蹈交融，身体挣脱束缚，化身为乐器。—— 《斯图加特日报》
云门舞团的演出令人屏息凝神，屏息凝神。—— 《圣何塞水星报》
这是一个你会喜欢、会爱上，并且想要再次观看的舞团。—— 《芭蕾舞蹈杂志》
享誉国际、深受世界各地观众喜爱的云门舞团携全新力作重返新加坡，带来又一令人惊艳的舞蹈盛宴。这部作品的灵感源自自然的声音、形态和流动性。
创作于疫情期间的《声光》（Sounding Light）始于一次全新的聆听。
作品的灵感来自森林——昆虫、鸟类以及微风拂过树梢的声音——由艺术总监郑宗龙编舞，探讨了人类文明与自然世界之间不断变化的（不）平衡。
舞蹈描绘了一天的流逝。阳光移动，云朵聚集，树叶的影子在空间中飘荡。时间在光线、节奏和氛围的变化中被塑造。
声音则在舞台上现场创作。舞者们既是舞者又是音乐家，他们与作曲家林强和张世安合作，运用呼吸、声音、指响和拍手等技巧，将
动作与声音交织在一起。舞者的姿态模仿鸟鸣虫吟，身体化作乐器。他们共同营造出风、雨、流水的意境，构建出一个既可视又可听的世界。
该作品于2024年在魏玛艺术节和德累斯顿欧洲艺术中心（HELLERAU）首演，此后广受好评，并持续在世界各地巡演。本次演出是“da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN)”
周末活动的一部分，该活动旨在聚焦由亚洲艺术家创作或与亚洲艺术家合作的当代舞蹈作品，着重展现该地区独特的艺术声音和创作灵感。
