Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan did the opening performance for London’s Dance Umbrella Festival this week with its piece Wind Shadow.

Dance Umbrella is a five week festival that promotes contemporary dance in London by bringing established companies, such as Netherlands Dance Theater (Holland), Inbal Pinto (Israel), and experimental dance artists to perform in London and by offering dance talks, classes, and special events. If you’re in London over the next month don’t miss it. Their website is www.danceumbrella.co.uk.

This article, Step-by-step guide to dance: Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, came out after Dance Umbrella’s first performance and gives an good short history and a few interesting facts about Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan. It also mentions the Cloud Gate Sculpture (the bean) in Chicago. Cloud Gate will be performing January 22 and 23 at Columbia College in Chicago. Here are a few other reviews from The Guardian and The Times Online.

Cloud Gate                                                                 and                                                               Cloud Gate (The Bean)

Ohio State University and The Forsythe Company collaborated to create the mathematical, creative, and interactive site Synchronous Objects. The purpose of Synchronous Objects is to visualize choreographic structure from dance to data to objects. The site is huge and can take hours to navigate and understand, so make sure you have time to really explore.  Have fun and if like me you’re not genius please look at the explanatory videos.

Tok’Art is a dance company developing in Lisbon, Portugal creating progressive dance with an eye for the community.

Check out excerpts from a piece titled “LAKE” .

Check out Fabrice Calmels’ and Sasha Fornari’s 30 seconds of dance website http://30secondsofdance.com.

Everyday a new HD video of a dancer or dancers doing ballet to hip hop to poppin and lockin’ is posted on this cool site. Personal favorites of mine are DeYDeY in front of the Effiel Tower, JSMOOTH, and that throw sideways double tour in Constelacion Latina Routines Part 2.  The site just started in March 2009 so I can’t wait to see what videos pop up next.

30 Seconds of Dance, week 4: JSMOOTH, Part 2 from 30 Seconds of Dance on Vimeo.