A dream of a show

11:27am Thursday 24th April 2008

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MOON Water by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, which moves from Wales Millennium Centre to Birmingham Hippodrome next week, is a quite unique experience - mesmeric, hypnotic, dreamlike.

To create this extraordinary piece, choreographer Lin Hwai-min has brilliantly combined mediation, tai-chi, martial arts and Chinese opera movement with modern dance and ballet. The result is a masterpiece of exquisitely controlled movement that transcends the dancers themselves to become something much more than its individual elements.

Set to movements from Bach’s Suites for cello, the music seems to become part of the dancers, who move seamlessly from solo to duet, the movements of one dance melting into those of another and, frequently, into those of the whole company; a group of dancers to the right of the stage moving as a single entity, pulsing slowly like a heartbeat.

Towards the end of the performance water slowly trickles on to the stage while the stark black backdrop draws back to reveal a reflection of the dancers’ movements and the white Chinese brush strokes of the set.

Moon Water is at Birmingham Hippodrome on Tuesday, April 29 and Wednesday, April 30 at 8pm. To book, click on the link below.