Taiwan’s Lin pays tribute to Cunningham

HONG KONG — One of the top modern dancers of the East on Tuesday paid tribute to a giant of the West, as Taiwan’s Lin Hwai-min mourned the death of Merce Cunningham, calling the late American “the greatest choreographer of the 20th century.”

Cunningham, best known for pioneering pure movement in dance divorced from storytelling and music, died at age 90 Sunday in New York City from natural causes.

“He was the greatest choreographer of the 20th century. His understanding of and concepts about dance influenced every important choreographer after the 1970s because he isolated dance from narrative and emotion,” Lin told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the Taiwanese capital Taipei.

“We are all his children because he created freedom by abolishing all the rules,” he said.

The 62-year-old Lin founded Taiwan’s famed Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, which has also adopted Cunningham’s approach of pure physical expression, but he said he was baffled when he first saw the American perform in Chicago because “I had no idea what he was doing.”

“The problem was my thinking. You have to first accept that dance is only movement, you are only watching movement and there are interesting qualities in the movement, rather than expecting him to tell you something,” Lin said.

Lin said he also admired the longevity of Cunningham’s career.

“He was still choreographing pieces a few months ago. He was still choreographing very good pieces,” Lin said.

Lin said Cunningham visited Taiwan once in the 1980s and once in the 1990s. He recalled asking the American why he kept on dancing even into his old age and Cunningham responding, “This is the only thing I know how to do, so I keep doing it.”