MOMENTS BEFORE the dancers of Taiwan's acclaimed Cloud Gate Dance Theatre begin their performance, the entire backstage area is briefly engulfed in silence. Instead of doing last-minute costume adjustments or make-up touches, the dancers are stock-still, meditating. Or, according to artistic director Lin Hwa-min, they 'clear their senses and balance their chi'. Call Lin a New Age guru, but he sees dance as the culmination of body and mind - and meditation has proven to bring out the best in his dancers.
In fact, meditation is how the dancers of Cloud Gate start their day, followed by tai chi exercise. 'At first everyone didn't like it, but I didn't care,' says Lin, 57. 'I had tai chi masters come in to teach them. I want them to learn to use their chi energy to direct their movements.' And does Lin, regarded as one of Asia's most outstanding choreographers and responsible for putting Taiwan on the international modern dance circuit, engage in the same mind-easing exercise? 'No, I am too impatient for that,' he says with a wry smile. 'I make everyone else do it but not myself.'
Lin is the first choreographer to bring this ancient Chinese practice to modern dance. Moon Water, Cloud Gate's much-acclaimed work, is an arresting combination of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Movements steeped in tai chi traditions are blended with music from Bach's Suites For Solo Cello. The stunning results, which Hong Kong audiences are soon to see for the first time, are where the future of Chinese modern dance lies. Since it premiered in 1998, Moon Water has been a phenomenal success from Europe to the United States.
'I am not concerned about particular movements any more, I am more interested in people's energy and the exchange of it,' Lin says. 'I think modern dance is about letting the audience sit and experience this kinetic energy.'
Tai chi exercises are merely tools to help dancers think about lines and shapes, he says. 'But it's the energy inside I am looking for, the chi directs the movement.' Lin is amused that some tai chi masters he has worked with are baffled by the dancers. 'They come to tell me that it's beautiful, but the dancers are using all the wrong movements,' he says.
Even before he began to incorporate tai chi into modern dance, Lin was breaking the mould. Yet for someone who's borne the weight of being the first Chinese to enter the Western realms of modern dance, Lin seems unburdened.