CHENG Tsung-lung, Artistic Director and choreographer of Cloud Gate, selected as 50 Contemporary Choreographers by Routledge Publishing, creates new work WAVES for Cloud Gate’s 50th anniversary. CHENG invites renowned digital artist Daito MANABE together to imagine the unseen body.
CHENG and MANABE explore what WAVES, in forms of energies, could transmit from the body, across spatial surfaces, mediums and humans. Waves transmit tangible objects and intangible elements. Set out to collect dancing body movements as digital data, metamorphose through artificial intelligence, CHENG and MANABE explore with dancers the boundaries of human movements in cognition, and provide an alternative perspective of how we see the world around us.
“This choreography is very different from my previous works. Daito Manabe and his team brought various tools like electromyography sensors and cameras, using technological devices to capture the dancers’ muscle and breathing data. Then these data are processed by AI to produce perceivable colours, sounds, and other energies.
In WAVES, the dancers’“intuition and intention” create fresh landscapes on stage. To me, the dancers’ bodies are electrified, much like how the invention of oil paint changed the style of painting of its time. The LED screens in WAVES are like canvases, and the data serves as the dancers’ paint.
By collaborating with Daito Manabe, we conducted various experiments. It felt like being electrified, with many currents and even turbulence among Manabe, the dancers, and me. Instead of completely rejecting or fully embracing technology, I choose to extend an olive branch, learning a new language. The dancers’ movements might originate from contemporary dance and derive from traditional rituals or Tai Chi Dao Yin, a form of Qi Gong; however, using AI-generated imagery and music, is there a chance to spark new possibilities? This is what WAVES aims to convey: Through distinct forms of energy, we can see different dynamics and kinetic potentials, and it seems like everything can communicate and be connected.(…) In physics, when two waves of different frequencies interfere with each other, new forms emerge, much like the various languages we use. Every form of language has its necessity, including body language and technological language. My concern is that in our accelerating and chaotic technological world, we might gradually lose the use of “dance” or the “body.” Yet, dance is such a pure form of creation, deeply connected with one’s inner self – a movement involving the entire body and mind. I hope we don’t ever forget this power.” Dall’intervista di Venezianews.it a CHENG Tsung-lung
| Choreography/Concept | CHENG Tsung-lung |
| Concept/Visual/Music/Program | Daito MANABE |
| Lighting Design | SHEN Po-hung |
| Costume Design | FAN Huai-chih |
| Film and Editing Director | Kenichiro SHIMIZU |
| VFX Programmer | Ayumu NAGAMATSU |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 2bit |
| Manipulator/Production Manager | Keisuke KIKUCHI |