Cursive II: Cloudgate Dance Theatre of Taiwan (2006)

"Cursive II" is a masterpiece by Lin Hwai-min, choreographer of the highly acclaimed Moon Water and Bamboo Dream. Inspired by the aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy, this work is both commanding and seductive. The superb Cloud Gate dancers, trained in meditation, Chi-Kung and martial arts, touch you with original movements, fierce as striking thunder or soft as flowing ink on rice paper. The complexity of energy is further enhanced by the music of John Cage, while the blown-up images of 'ice crackles' from Sung porcelain shimmer with delicate beauty. This production, exquisitely filmed by dance expert Ross MacGibbon, captures the meditative aura of the dance. It excites. It mesmerizes. It is spell-binding.