This piece was created in 1995, and revived in 2006 in Taipei. In this performance, Lee-chen Lin pays tribute to the earth as the sanctuary of the soul. Through propitiatory rites, the human soul is purified of its ills and the mind feels free. A tribute to the rituals, the religious and profane ceremonies of Taiwan, but also to the theatre passed down from generation to generation, its melodies rooted in a remote past, and its songs sung for aeons. It evokes the eternal human quest for awakening and self-consciousness.

How can the past shape the future?

Time is as a river, continuous and inseparable. The past, the present, and the future seems to be three different concepts, however, if we narrow down every “present,” like from this year, today, this minute, this second, even to the moment in which a thought flies away, every “present” dies as the past, and it also decides how the future comes.
Life is like a tree, nurtured from the earth. Some of what happened to us goes with the wind, while some kept in our memory accumulates as layers of earth. The deeper and richer the soil is, the taller and stronger the tree can grow. Likewise, my creation comes from every moment in my life, and the changing of time plays a great role to the maturity of it.

Lee-chen Lin

Source: Biennale de la Danse de Lyon 2008 programme

Born in Taiwan in 1950, Lin Lee-Chen is a graduate of the Department of Dance at Chinese Culture University. She attracted attention among the artistic circle already during the 1970s as a dance teacher and choreographer at Chang-An Girls’ Junio High School, where a her dance productions - some involving as many as hundred performers - garnered national awards for five consecutive years and had an enormous influence on dance and theater productions in Taiwan. But it was her choreography and performance of « Don't Forget Your Umbrella » in 1978, her first solo production, that gained Lee-Chen Lin widespread critical attention and earned her the reputation of being “an astonishing new talent in Taiwanese performance arts”.

Her subsequent dance pieces and choreographic work on stage and screen only enhanced her reputation. Surprisingly, at the very height of her reputation, she retired from work in order to devote herself fully to her family. However, concerned about the rapid and dramatic decline of Taiwan’s traditional culture and arts in the face of a growing invasion of Western cultural forms, she felt compelled to return to the stage as a choreographer and director of her own company.

With the encouragement and support of many like-minded colleagues and kindred souls, she founded the Legend Lin Dance Theatre in 1995 with the goal of revitalizing and reaffirming Taiwanese culture and identity. « Miroirs de vie » and « Hymne aux Fleurs qui passent », the first fruits of this new mission, echo aspects of traditional Taiwanese rites and celebrate our relationship to the earth and nature’s own ritual cycles.

Following these two pieces, Lin Lee-Chen presents the final work of the series, « Song of Pensive Beholding », in 2009, the result of nine years of germination. This long-awaited piece completes the trilogy of Lin’s tribute to Heaven, Earth, and Man. In « Miroirs de vie », she explores the beauty and sadness of all things and all beings, seen and unseen; in « Hymne aux Fleurs qui passent », she portrays the connection between man and the spirit of nature; and in « Song of Pensive Beholding », the choreographer weaves her original rival myth with a compassionate vision, reflecting on the harm done to our environment and ourselves by human avarice. The interconnectedness of man, the spirits, and the gods permeates all of her work. In Lin’s world, all beings are co-existent, affecting one another.

Source : The Legend Lin Dance Theatre 's website

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Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon

Artistic direction: Lee-chen Lin

Creation: 1995

The history of Legend Lin Dance Theatre is very much the story of its artistic director and choreographer Lin Lee-Chen. She founded the repertory company for the purpose of presenting large-scale performance works that reflect the spirit and culture of her native Taiwan. Inspired by local religious rituals and ceremonial rites celebrating the rhythms of nature and our place in it, the artistry of the Legend Lin Dance Theatre blends a lush visual aesthetics with a brilliantly original choreography that gives new meaning to the phrase “poetry in motion.”

A show-stealer at the Festival d’Avignon in 1998, « Miroirs de Vie » was inspired by the Jiao, a Daoist open-air ceremony held during the Ghost Festival in the seventh lunar month, when the angry spirits of the un-cared-for dead are temporarily allowed to return to the world of the living. Having grown up in the harbor town of Keelung, where the Jiao has been practiced for centuries, Lin Lee-Chen was a frequent witness to the power and beauty of this appeasement ceremony, and her « Miroirs de Vie » is an aesthetic tribute to this local cultural tradition.

In its many appearances overseas, the company has won praise from critics and audiences alike. Its « Hymne aux Fleurs qui Passent », which pays tribute to the cycle of the seasons and the complementary principles of Yin and Yang, garnered the Prix du Public at the 9th Biennale de la Danse de Lyon in 2000 and broke attendance records at the Festival de Otoño the following year.

In 2009, Legend Lin Dance Theatre presents the final work of the series, « Song of Pensive Beholding » after nine years. Inspired by watching the eagles at Keelung Harbor, Lin Lee-Chen’s hometown, the choreographer weaves her original tribal myth with a pensive eye, reflecting on the harm done to our environment and ourselves by human avarice. This long-awaited piece completes the trilogy of the choreographer's tribute to Heaven, Earth, and Man, and once again stuns the world stage.

Source: The Legend Lin Dance Theatre 's website

More information

wougow.myweb.hinet.net