Cheng Tsung-lung
Choreographer
From street hawker selling slippers to internationally recognized choreographer, Cheng Tsung-lung succeeded Lin Hwai-min as Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan starting in 2020.
Cheng took his first dance class at the age of 8. Upon graduation from the Dance Department at Taipei National University of the Arts, he joined Cloud Gate in 2002 and became the Artistic Director of Cloud Gate 2 in 2014.
Cheng has been awarded prestigious prizes for his choreography internationally as well as at home, such as the No Ballet International Choreography Competition (Germany), the Premio Roma Danza International Choreography Competition (Italy), the MASDANZA Choreography Competition (Spain) and the Taishin Arts Award (Taiwan). He has also worked with companies worldwide, including Sydney Dance Company, the Transitions Dance Company at the Laban Centre, London, Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane, and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Cheng’s work is deeply rooted in both ancient and modern Taiwanese culture — and he is a strong supporter of Cloud Gate’s extensive engagement with grassroots audiences across Taiwan— yet it also embraces global influences. His 13 Tongues (2016) integrates folk dance, religious rites, and Taoist chant to conjure the streets where he worked as a child. Lunar Halo (2019) is performed to an ethereally haunting soundtrack by Icelandic musician Sigur Rós and explores the complex area of human connection and technology. Sounding Light (2020) was written in response to COVID-19 pandemic-induced isolation and reflects on the precariousness of both the human and the natural world. Visually stunning, Send In A Cloud (2022) displays in shifting colours a panorama of dancers’ life journeys. The most recent choreography WAVES (2023), a collaboration with Japanese media artist Daito MANABE, explores societal and individual facets affected by the rapid progress of technological advancements.
Cheng has been a fixture of Routledge’s respected annual survey of dance practitioners, Fifty Contemporary Choreographers (2020), alongside the likes of William Forsythe, Akram Khan, Hofesh Shechter, and leaders in the form.
Back in Montreal, much to our delight, Asia’s leading contemporary dance company takes us on a dizzying sensory journey inspired by a mysterious lunar phenomenon.