Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan & Cheng Tsung-lung

Cheng Tsung-lung, the artistic director of Cloud Gate, was fascinated as a child by his mother’s tales of a legendary street performer and storyteller from the 1960s, known as “Thirteen Tongues”, who had turned Taipei’s oldest district, Bangka (also known as Wanhua) into his informal stage. It was said that “Thirteen Tongues” could bring all the characters of this vibrant neighborhood – high and low, sacred and profane, men and women – to life in vivid, dramatic and imaginative tales. Years later, Cheng’s childhood memories became his inspiration for the dance piece “13 Tongues”.

Beginning and ending with the sound of a single handbell, the music accompanying “13 Tongues” ranges from Taiwanese folk songs and Taoist chants to electronica. The stage is flooded with projections of vibrant colors, shapes and images, and the dancers gather and disperse, reunite and interact in a captivating portrayal of bustling street life. As the heritage of old Bangka merges with today’s urban landscape, time seems to dissolve.

Press Reviews

• 13 Tongues” is a sensationally grand, lavish and visually striking expression of cultural memory. (The Times)
• It is the bringing together of those phantasmagorical stories, with the clamour of street life that surrounded the charismatic storyteller, that gives “13 Tongues” its distinctive vivacity. (Financial Times)
• Full of extravagant beauty. “13 Tongues” feels at once contemporary and retro…a storied downtown New York nightclub in the 1960s…The bohemian vibe of this production is electrifying. (The Washington Post)