The performance of 13 Tongues took us on a journey of about 6,710 miles to the fascinating streets of Bangka/Wanhua, the oldest district of Taipei, for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan’s kickoff of the 2024-25 UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures (A&L) dance series. Taking place at The Granada Theatre on November 2, it was a visually striking evening with background projections of brilliant colors, shapes, and images, and foreground stories of a land far away, as the dancers gathered, connected, separated, and came together again to portray the chaotic energy of Taiwan’s street life.
Based on his mother’s stories of a 1960s street artist and storyteller known as 13 Tongues, who would conjure up a variety of characters from all walks of life in Bangka, Cloud Gate Artistic Director Cheng Tsung-lung grew up fascinated by these stories, which ultimately inspired him to transform his childhood memories of the tales into dance. With imagery that conjures his boyhood, when, as a child in the 1980s, he would contribute to the family business by helping his father sell slippers on the streets of Bangka/Wanhua, Tsung-lung shared, through dance, a vibrant world of the street and its people, both rich and poor, secular and sacred, partaking in both work and play, and legal and somewhat sketchy illicit activities. He explained as much to UC Santa Barbara Professor of Theater and Dance Ninotchka Bennahum in a translated Talk Back interview after the performance.
Accompanied by music ranging from traditional folk songs to Taoist chants and modern EDM, the internationally renowned dance company displayed a broad range of skills and styles and emotions for the immersive 65-minute program. Cloud Gate dancers receive training in meditation, Qigong, martial arts (there were definitely some moments reminiscent of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), modern dance, ballet, and calligraphy (it did feel like the dancers were being guided across the stage in ink at some points in the program).
An interesting exploration of the universal language of dance, 13 Tongues was an exciting and challenging way to begin the A&L dance series season’s journey. Next up is the Nutcracker Suite from Dorrance Dance, on December 5, at the Arlington Theatre.
