Gustav Mahler wrote Song of the Earth to bid farewell to this planet. A century later, Lin Lee-chen goes further to lament the earth's wounded soul in her Song of Pensive Beholding. Despite their differences - the Austrian composer's masterpiece is rendered through voices and a 100-strong orchestra, and the Taiwanese choreographer's piece is minimalist - they both express profound feelings for the world and evoke emotions that are beyond words.
The Legend Lin Dance Theatre's two-hour production is part of this year's World Cultures Festival presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Premiered in Taiwan in 2009, the eight-part work features 20 dancers and a small group of musicians. Lin sets her signature ritualistic style of movement against an exotic musical backdrop and bare stage design to address the deepest thoughts on human deeds and values.
'Our everyday life is too fast to allow us to stop and think,' says Lin after a strenuous rehearsal at the troupe's base, a former custody barrack for political prisoners, in Xindian district, Taipei. 'But once you slow down, you will begin to see things clearly, like through a magnifying glass, and you will hear yourself, even voices of others, as well as of the environment.
'Then you will come to see the hidden beauty out there, and at the same time come to realise all the suffering and pain we inadvertently inflict on the environment,' says the soft-spoken choreographer, who has just turned 60.
Only by interacting with the earth theme, she says, can audiences be brought closer to the soul of the earth, and to appreciate how our survival depends on the intricate balance of all things.
Song of Pensive Beholding, or guan in Chinese, which literally means 'observing', is the finale of Lin's Heaven, Earth and Man trilogy. The first two parts premiered in 1995 and 2000 to immediate acclaim. But it took another nine years for Lin to conclude the series.
The upcoming performance will mark the Legend Lin Dance Theatre's Hong Kong debut.