Songs of the Wanderers

Photo courtesy of Cloud Gate

It was the music that captured my heart and attention the most; the meditative, touching, and almost eerie sound of chanting seems like it's coming from deep within one's soul. I can't put a finger on what it was, but the closest description I could give it would be that it's like the Gregorian chants, but not exactly, not exactly. Depending on one's mood, it could either be soothing and calming, or chilling... I experienced both sensations throughout the performance. Whilst it was the music that struck me the most, I don't imply that rest of the work didn't make an impression. In fact, every poignant scene has been ingrained in memory.

Songs of the Wanderers is a stunning, beautiful, and unique work of art presented in skillfully crafted dance choreography, blending in Eastern and Western symbolisms and traditions. It is like no other performances I have seen before. At the start, as silent as the mist, as dark as the night's curtain, the stage was a mystery in itself. And then the pouring of grain, illuminated into golden colours, it does not stop. The grain continues to pour down on a silent, unmoving figure situated at the right of the stage. A praying monk, head bowed, eyes closed, hands clasped in meditation, with rice falling on his head and slowly piling up around him. Yet for a whole 90 minutes, he remains motionless, not a heave, not a twitch. He is calm.

The dancers come out, their movements slow, expressive, purposeful. Blank faces, eyes searching far, and then suddenly they express pain and anguish, depicting so much of human suffering. Whether in stillness or in their moving forms, the dancers performed in a simplistic fashion but at the same time with such intensity that it reverberates through one's soul. For each arm reaching out, for each body arching back, for each step forward, and each person falling down... there was an abundance of emotion and meaning, about spirituality, sin and repentance, human effort, disappointment and fulfilment, life and death, the cycle that begins and then ends... and that which starts again. I was engulfed in the world that was being created on stage.

The company behind this creation is the internationally-reknowned Cloud Gate Dance Theatreof Taiwan. It's founder Lin Hwai Min is famous for his creative use and fusion of contemporary and modern dance with meditation, tai chi, qi gong, and martial arts. They were here in Melbourne and performed at The Arts Centre as part of Victoria's celebration of cultural diversity. A lover of the performing arts, it was the first of Cloud Gate's works that I have seen, and I am glad that I did. Thanks to A for taking me to the show. 'Til the next artsy date!