It'll be all white

Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theatre made its debut in Hong Kong with The White Serpent, a romantic tale of a bewitching snake spirit who sacrifices immortality for her human lover. It's one of choreographer Lin Hwai-min's early landmark works.

More than three decades later, segments of Lin's The White Serpent will open Cloud Gate's 14th Hong Kong performance, beginning this Wednesday. Tale of the White Serpent & Unforgettable Moments of Cloud Gate takes a retrospective look at Lin's works, while White, a separate programme, is a minimal piece created last year.

It will probably be one of Cloud Gate's final presentations of The White Serpent anywhere. 'We're carrying too much,' says Lin, 59. 'If we're to go on, we have to leave some things behind.'

In recent years, Lin has begun retiring many of his company's earlier works to pour his energies into new projects. He has said his goal is to create one work a year. He won't be able to this year, but he managed two new pieces last year.

In the past six months, Cloud Gate has collaborated with artist Cai Guoqiang and modern dancer Akram Kahn. Cai's visual direction of the starkly rendered Wind Shadow was his first theatre work in decades, and Kahn's gritty Dark Shadow, which had its premiere last month in Taipei, was the first time Kahn had choreographed for a company other than his own London-based group.

Before the Dark Shadow opened, Kahn said he considered Lin his mentor. 'Cloud Gate is such a powerful company, not just in Asia but also in the west,' he said. 'I have such great respect for Mr Lin, that after 30 years, he's still making beautiful and poetic work, and that is inspiring for me. It just makes me more humble that I have so much more to learn.'