Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan presents “Moon Water” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Exquisitely and subtly, the entire spectacle on Tuesday night evoked water and moonlight as symbols of illusion. Outwardly all was slow: the extraordinary fluidity of the 18 magnificent dancers, reflected in the mirrored panels behind or above them, and the even more amazing slow tempos of the accompanying recordings by Mischa Maisky as he plays nine selections from Bach’s cello suites.
The tour de force is the way Mr. Lin has extended and transformed the movement of tai chi exercises into an expressive dance vocabulary. Virtually all is flow and continuous energy, punctuated with martial thrusts amid repeated sinking and rising of bodies.
Unexpectedly, this syncretic fusion of a codified Asian movement vocabulary with Bach’s Baroque dance forms is a perfect fit. In his exceptionally slow playing, Mr. Maisky offers a consistency of tone that matches the choreography’s nuanced stream of energy. Bach’s stately sarabandes suddenly become whole with the dancing.
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