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Program Books/Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan 13 Tongues

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
13 Tongues

Saturday, October 29, 2022, 8pm
Sunday, October 30, 2022, 3pm
Zellerbach Hall

This tour is made possible, in part, by grants from the Ministry of Culture, R.O.C. (Taiwan).

This performance will last approximately 65 minutes and be performed without an intermission.

From the Executive and Artistic Director

Jeremy Geffen

I couldn’t be happier to welcome you to this, one of the first programs of Cal Performances’ remarkable 2022–23 season. This month, we look forward to visits from gifted classical artists like violinist Maxim Vengerov and pianist Polina Osetinskaya; Baroque violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and her partners, cellist Coleman Itzkoff and harpsichordist David Belkovski; and harpsichordist and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. We’ll also welcome our own San Francisco Symphony back to UC Berkeley in a special concert especially appropriate for the Halloween season and featuring music director Esa-Pekka Salonen and piano soloist Bertrand Chamayou; as well as the brilliant Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan with its breathtaking production of 13 Tongues. I’m proud to launch the season with programming that represents the finest in dance and classical music.

But this is just the start! From now until May 2023—when we close our season with the Bay Area premiere of Octavia E. Butler’s powerful folk opera Parable of the Sower and a highly anticipated recital with international dramatic soprano sensation Nina Stemme—we have a calendar packed with the very best in the live performing arts.

And what a schedule! More than 70 events, with highlights including the return of the legendary Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Christian Thielemann (in his Bay Area debut); the beloved Mark Morris Dance Group in Morris’ new The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach; the US premiere of revered South African artist William Kentridge’s astonishing new SIBYL; and a special concert with chamber music superstars pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. And these are only a few of the amazing performances that await you!

Illuminations programming this season will take advantage of Cal Performances’ unique positioning as a vital part of the world’s top-ranked public university. In the coming months, we’ll be engaging communities on and off campus to examine the evolution of tools such as musical instruments and electronics, the complex relationships between the creators and users of technology, the possibilities enabled by technology’s impact on the creative process, and questions raised by the growing role of artificial intelligence in our society.

This concept of “Human and Machine” has never been so pertinent to so many. Particularly over the course of the pandemic, the rapid expansion of technology’s role in improving communication and in helping us emotionally process unforeseen and, at times, extraordinarily
difficult events has made a permanent mark on our human history. Throughout time, our reliance on technology to communicate has—for better and worse—influenced how we understand others as well as ourselves. During this Illuminations season, we will investigate how technology has
contributed to our capacity for self-expression, as well as the potential dangers it may pose.

Some programs this season will bring joy and delight, and others will inspire reflection and stir debate. We are committed to presenting this wide range of artistic expression on our stages because of our faith in the performing arts’ power to promote empathy. And it is because of our audiences’ openness and curiosity that we have the privilege of bringing such thought-provoking, adventurous performances to our campus. The Cal Performances community wants the arts to engage in important conversations, and to bring us all together as we see and feel the world through the experiences of others.

Please make sure to check out our brochures and our website for complete information about upcoming events. We can’t wait to share all the details with you, in print and online.

Welcome back to Cal Performances!

Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances

Jeremy GeffenI couldn’t be happier to welcome you to this, one of the first programs of Cal Performances’ remarkable 2022–23 season. This month, we look forward to visits from gifted classical artists like violinist Maxim Vengerov and pianist Polina Osetinskaya; Baroque violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and her partners, cellist Coleman Itzkoff and harpsichordist David Belkovski; and harpsichordist and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout. We’ll also welcome our own San Francisco Symphony back to UC Berkeley in a special concert especially appropriate for the Halloween season and featuring music director Esa-Pekka Salonen and piano soloist Bertrand Chamayou; as well as the brilliant Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan with its breathtaking production of 13 Tongues. I’m proud to launch the season with programming that represents the finest in dance and classical music.

But this is just the start! From now until May 2023—when we close our season with the Bay Area premiere of Octavia E. Butler’s powerful folk opera Parable of the Sower and a highly anticipated recital with international dramatic soprano sensation Nina Stemme—we have a calendar packed with the very best in the live performing arts.

And what a schedule! More than 70 events, with highlights including the return of the legendary Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor Christian Thielemann (in his Bay Area debut); the beloved Mark Morris Dance Group in Morris’ new The Look of Love: An Evening of Dance to the Music of Burt Bacharach; the US premiere of revered South African artist William Kentridge’s astonishing new SIBYL; and a special concert with chamber music superstars pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. And these are only a few of the amazing performances that await you!

Illuminations programming this season will take advantage of Cal Performances’ unique positioning as a vital part of the world’s top-ranked public university. In the coming months, we’ll be engaging communities on and off campus to examine the evolution of tools such as musical instruments and electronics, the complex relationships between the creators and users of technology, the possibilities enabled by technology’s impact on the creative process, and questions raised by the growing role of artificial intelligence in our society.

This concept of “Human and Machine” has never been so pertinent to so many. Particularly over the course of the pandemic, the rapid expansion of technology’s role in improving communication and in helping us emotionally process unforeseen and, at times, extraordinarily
difficult events has made a permanent mark on our human history. Throughout time, our reliance on technology to communicate has—for better and worse—influenced how we understand others as well as ourselves. During this Illuminations season, we will investigate how technology has
contributed to our capacity for self-expression, as well as the potential dangers it may pose.

Some programs this season will bring joy and delight, and others will inspire reflection and stir debate. We are committed to presenting this wide range of artistic expression on our stages because of our faith in the performing arts’ power to promote empathy. And it is because of our audiences’ openness and curiosity that we have the privilege of bringing such thought-provoking, adventurous performances to our campus. The Cal Performances community wants the arts to engage in important conversations, and to bring us all together as we see and feel the world through the experiences of others.

Please make sure to check out our brochures and our website for complete information about upcoming events. We can’t wait to share all the details with you, in print and online.

Welcome back to Cal Performances!

Jeremy Geffen
Executive and Artistic Director, Cal Performances

About the Performance

When he was a child in the 1980s, Cloud Gate Artistic Director CHENG Tsung-lung contri­buted to the family business by helping his father sell slippers on the streets of Bangka/Wanhua, the oldest district of Taipei. Bangka/Wanhua was known for its vibrantly diverse and bustling street scene, which embraced religious and secular life, rich and poor, work and play, legal and illegal activities. The young CHENG was transfixed by his mother’s accounts of the legendary 1960s street artist and storyteller known as Thirteen Tongues who had adopted Bangka/Wanhua for his informal stage. It was said that Thirteen Tongues could conjure up all the Bangka/Wanhua characters—high- and low-born, sacred and profane, male and female—in the most vivid, dramatic, and fluently imaginative narratives. Thirty years later, CHENG’s fascination with Thirteen Tongues became his inspiration as he transformed his childhood memories into dance.

Beginning and ending with the sound of a single hand bell, the music accompanying 13 Tongues ranges from Taiwanese folk songs to Taoist chant to electronica. The stage is awash with projections of brilliant colors, shapes, and images, and the dancers gather, interact, separate, and re-gather in a thrilling representation of the clamour of street life. As the religious heritage of ancient Bangka/Wanhua fuses with today’s secular space, so time appears to dissolve. The spirit realm and the human realm also merge as the audience is taken on an immersive journey—via imagination and storytelling that recalls the art of Thirteen Tongues—through centuries of human endeavor, behaviour, and belief.

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

LIN Hwai-min, Founder
CHENG Tsung-lung, Artistic Director
LEE Ching-chun, Associate Artistic Director
YANG Ling-kai, Rehearsal Director
HUANG Mei-ya, YEH Po-sheng; Rehearsal Assistants
HSIUNG Wei, LEE Guo-wei; Qi Gong Masters
Adam Chi HSU, CHEN Chun-lung; Internal Martial Arts Masters
CHUANG Yuan-ting, LIN Li-chuan, WU Ching-yin; Ballet Teachers
HUANG Pei-hua, TSAI Ming-yuan; Modern Dance Teachers
HONG Jia-ling, KUO Tsung-han, LIANG Chun-mei, WU Jia-jin; Accompanists

Dancers
CHEN Mu-han     HOU Tang-li     HUANG Li-chieh
HUANG Mei-ya     LEE Tzu-chun     WU Jui-ying     YEH Po-sheng

CHEN Lien-wei     CHEN Tsung-chiao     CHENG Hsi-ling     CHOU Chen-yeh     FAN Chia-hsuan
HSU Chih-hen     HUANG Lu-kai     HUANG Po-kai     HUANG Yu-ling     SHAO Hsing-wen

CHAN Pui-pui     CHANG Yu-tzu     HUANG Ching-heng     HUANG Yen-cheng     YEN Hsueh-hsin

CHAO Hsin     LAI Wei-chun     LIN Pin-shuo

Apprentices
HUANG Hsiang-ting     WANG Chun-hung

13 Tongues

CHENG Tsung-lung, Choreography
LIM Giong, Music
HO Chia-hsing, Art Design
SHEN Po-hung, Lighting Design
Ethan WANG, Projection Design
LIN Bing-hao, Costume Design
TSAI Pao-chang, Voice Coach

Cast
(in alphabetical order)
CHEN Lien-wei     CHEN Mu-han     CHEN Tsung-chiao     CHENG Hsi-ling
CHOU Chen-yeh     FAN Chia-hsuan     HUANG Li-chieh     HUANG Lu-kai     HUANG Yen-cheng
HUANG Yu-ling     LAI Wei-chun     SHAO Hsing-wen     YEN Hsueh-hsin

Premiere
March 11, 2016 – Taiwan International Festival of Arts at the National Theater, Taipei, Taiwan

Commission
National Theater & Concert Hall (Taipei)

Cloud Gate Culture and Arts Foundation
Stan SHIH, chairman

Board of Directors
HSU Sheng-hsiung, Barry LAM, Simon LIN, LIN Hwai-min, Jamie LIN, TSAI Hong-tu, Rick TSAI, TSENG F.C., TUNG T.H., Kate Huei-wen WEN, Eric YAO, Diane YING

Kathy HONG, executive director

Administrative Staff on Tour
HUANG Ching-yi, general manager
Janice WANG, senior project manager
CHUANG Ting-chi, project manager
Alanna CHOO, project assistant                                

Technical Staff on Tour
Nick HUNG, production director             
CHUNG Pin-yueh, stage manager          
HUNG Chih-lung, technical director      
TSENG Yen-min, lighting supervisor     
LIOU Yun-chang, audio supervisor         
HSU Wen-wen, wardrobe supervisor    

Exclusive North American
Tour Representation
Rena Shagan Associates, Inc.
180 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10024
Tel: (212) 873-9700
www.shaganarts.com

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