Dance  Renowned for its stunning beauty and expressive power, the Taiwanese Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s style combines ballet with modern dance but also East Asian martial arts, qi gong, meditation and calligraphy. This celebrated company has already had a street and an asteroid named after it in its homeland. In ‘Rice’, the company’s choreographer and founder, Lin Hwai­min, incorporates patterns of the everyday movements of South East Taiwanese rice farmers into the work of the dancers, accompanied by traditional Hakka folk songs as well as the works of Camille Saint­Saëns and Gustav Mahler. Video installations in the background reflect the life cycle of a rice field and illustrate an arresting work about death and rebirth, destruction and resurrection.

"Rice" is a co-commission by Wen C. Ko in coproduction with the National Performing Arts Center - National Theater & Concert Hall, Taiwan, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay Singapore, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival, Sadler's Wells London, HELLERAU European Center for the Arts Dresden and Théâtre de la Ville Paris. The tour was made possible in part by grants from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan).