PuSh Festival: The Eternal Tides

The Eternal Tides is a momentous occasion—an adventure in beauty unlike anything else seen before on the PuSh stage. In her Canadian debut, choreographer Lin Lee-Chen folds age-old rituals, customs and ceremonial rites into her radical vision, and the result is epic. The show is, above all, a tribute to water: the ocean that encloses the island of Taiwan, and the cycle of renewal it is part of. Using song, dance and striking stage design, Lin evokes the mythology of these elements. You might call it spiritual environmentalism—a tribute to nature as it was, and might be again.

With its large ensemble of dancers and musicians, the show has an intoxicating power. Lin carries us through a procession of vivid tableaux; the imagery evokes myth and human reality in equal measure. The costumes and sets are stunning: fabric and silver grass, red-tinted figures and shocks of white, composed with flair and delicacy. At once austere and sensual, intimate and monumental, this show will leave you awestruck.