New Performing Arts Landscape: Cheng Tsung-lung and Bulareyaung

Founded by Lin Hwai-min in 1973, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (Cloud Gate) is the first professional dance group in Taiwan and the first contemporary dance group in any Chinese-speaking country. Cloud Gate has toured in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia for years. It was praised by the Times in Britain as the top contemporary dance group in Asia and recognized by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitunghe in Germany as a world-class modern dance company. In 2019, the company won the Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company at the National Dance Awards in the UK. In 2017, the night before the premiere of Cloud Gate’s 90th production Formosa, Lin Hwai-min announced his retirement from the role of Artistic Director, a position he had held for over 46 years. It was also announced that the post would be filled by Cheng Tsung-lung at the end of 2019. Once a dancer at Cloud Gate, Cheng began to choreograph at the encouragement of Lo Man-Fei, the Artistic Director of Cloud Gate 2, a dance group composed of emerging dancers and choreographers. Cheng became the director of Cloud Gate 2 himself in 2014. His work reflects upon the Taiwanese local custom and body language, assimilating elements from pop culture and street culture. It blurs the line between high and low art and redefines notions of beauty via the pursuit of a “poised attitude”. 2020 may be the start of an exciting chapter for Cloud Gate under Cheng’s new leadership.

Paiwan choreographer Bulareyaung was also a dancer at Cloud Gate and a resident choreographer at Cloud Gate 2. He had been invited to choreograph for the Martha Graham Dance Company in the United States. During college, Bulareyaung experienced a period of existential uncertainty as a young, rising star in the dance arena. He reclaimed his Paiwan name Bulareyaung Pagarlava in search of a truer identity. This quest brought him closer to the indigenous culture in Taiwan and began a creative journey charged with cultural poignancies. In 2014, Bulareyaung established the Bulareyaung Dance Company in his hometown Taitung on the east coast of Taiwan. Working with young, local dancers, Bulareyaung set out exploring the relationship between body and sound, developing a humanistic, contemporary language that aligns with the indigenous experience on the east coast of Taiwan. Bulareyaung’s 2017 piece Stay That Way sheds light on issues rising from the tension between land, indigenous communities, and contemporary society. It won the Performing Arts Award of the 2018 Taishin Arts Award, one of the most prestigious art prizes in Taiwan. In 2019, Bulareyaung Dance Company unprecedentedly frequented the Taishin Arts Award again, this time winning the Grand Prize with its production LUNA. The remarkable body expression indicative of the indigenous communities was honored and recognized via Taishin’s mainstream platform.