Review: LUNAR HALO, CLOUD GATE DANCE THEATRE, Sadler's Wells

I’ve never seen a lunar halo – a sparkling ring around the moon – so the fact that Cheng Tsung-lung’s work of the same name uses it as a premise is indeed intriguing.

Cheng as both choreographer and Artistic Director, presents Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (of Taiwan) at Sadler’s Wells, and Lunar Halo promises to contemplate some pretty big stuff: “a time of considerable change; reliance on communicating through new technology; if we can satisfy our needs and desires with just a few taps of a screen, what is the purpose of the human body?”

Cheng keeps things local - he saw the lunar halo in Iceland - by using Icelandic band Sigur Rós as the soundtrack to the piece, as well as taking a multimedia route by including “multiple large LED panels that are filled with fluidly moving shapes, colours, and images”.

Such introductions causes the audience to arrive at the theatre with big expectations. And if these expectations fail to be reached, the experience can be painful and vivid.

In Lunar Halo (2019) one finds a quintessential example of style over substance. Most genres develop a template that the majority follow - it's somewhat inevitable, often meaning that work is appreciated by the masses who partake sporadically, but the odd few who see a lot of dance recognise the predictable, generic structure and suffer. Generally from around five minutes until the end.

Such is the situation here, with the formulaic content beginning with the overseen centipede approach to choreography: line of interlocked dancers executing undulating, slo-mo catatonic movement for the foreseeable future. 

Subsequently we see extended solos that don't really mean anything; group moments of ritualistic, neanderthal tinged movement, masses of hairography, uncontrollable shaking, predatory crawling, misogynistic partner work - seeing the female dancers tossed about - and many a lump of oscillating bodies.

It's all performed by a very capable group of dancers, full of skill and intention, yet none of it resonates beyond the proscenium. It had zero effect on me.

Cheng confirms the presence of the screens are an opportunity for the dancers to interact with the digital element in order to highlight their “sheer physicality”…however none of this conveys. The three screens show numerous visuals (Ethan Wang) throughout: blue smoke, a black hole, green lines etc. But none of it doing the desired comparative or interactive graft it’s meant to. The most powerful screen moments feature the dancers themselves: a forlorn looking group in a mirrored prison, and an imposing 15 ft tall, naked male dancer who ends up being painted white, although it's unclear why.

The piece ends with a build musically and choreographically before the predictable calm after the storm. And just when you think it's all over, in come the haunting vocals, dry ice and more slow emptiness.

My experience won't be the case for everyone. Personally speaking, I prefer substance over anything else, and I'm perturbed about the direction modern dance seems to be moving in Taiwan - which feels even more significant when considering Cloud Gate Dance Theatre are celebrating their 50th anniversary.

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre is at Sadler’s Wells until December 2

Photo Credit: LIU Chen-hsiang

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