Chicago Tribune
Date: Feb 27, 2018
By: Lauren Warnecke

“I started Cloud Gate with no professional experience behind me,” said Lin Hwai-min in a

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan will perform “Formosa” at the Harris Theater. (Liu Chen-hsiang photo)

phone interview with the Tribune. The Taiwanese writer began seriously studying dance at age 23 while completing an MFA from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. He formed Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan in 1973 upon returning home to Taipei.

“When I started the company. I wanted to create something of our own,” he said. “I never thought that we would tour around the world. … Life is strange.” In the ’70s, Cloud Gate was the only professional dance company in Taiwan — the first contemporary dance company in any Chinese-speaking country. With a prolific career including more than 90 works, Lin developed his own choreographic style blending Western dance with Eastern ontology. He is an ambassador of sorts, bringing concert dance to Taiwanese people through free public performances hosting up to 30,000 at a time, and bringing Taiwan to us by sharing his work internationally through extensive touring. And at the end of 2019, Lin will take his final bow as artistic director of Cloud Gate, retiring after 45 years at the helm.    [FULL  STORY]