Cheng Tsung-lung
A choreographer and a dancer, Cheng Tsung-lung has served as the Artistic Director for Cloud Gate 2 since 2014.
Cheng’s family owns a slipper factory. Hawking slippers on the sidewalk was part of his childhood and adolescent life. The dynamics of street life and pedestrians’ behaviour later became the inspiration for his choreography.
After graduating from the Dance Department of Taipei National University of the Arts, Cheng performed internationally with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan from 2002 to 2004. He served as the Resident Choreographer for Cloud Gate 2 from 2006 to 2010.
He is the winner of the No Ballet International Choreography Competition, Germany (2006), the Premio Roma Danza International Choreography Competition in Italy, the 16th MASDANZA Choreography Competition in Spain (2011), and the Taishin Arts Award (2012) – the most prestigious arts prize in Taiwan. Cheng was honoured as ‘Artist of 2011′ by the Performing Arts Reviews, Taiwan, and awarded the Performing Arts Fellowship by the Asian Cultural Council to spend 10 months in New York in 2012.
Cheng has choreographed and restaged works for Transitions Dance Company at the Laban Centre, London; Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane; the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; and Focus Dance Company, Taiwan. His productions with Cloud Gate 2 include: A Dignified Joke, Change, The Wall, Happiness and Music, Crack, Blue Hour, Dorian Gray, and Beckoning.
In 2016, his work 13 Tongues, commissioned by Taiwan International Festival of Arts (TIFA), was premiered by Cloud Gate 2 at the National Theater, the National Performing Arts Center in Taipei, Taiwan.
Cheng choreographed Full Moon, which will premiere alongside Rafael Bonachela’s Ocho in Orb in Sydney from 29 April – 13 May 2017. Full Moon will also show at Art Centre Melbourne from 17-20 May 2017 and Canberra Theatre Centre from 25-27 May 2017.