Calligraphy Drawn With Bodies, Not Ink

The Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival — which, unlike wine, doesn’t seem to improve with age — opens its 25th year with another East-meets-West concoction by Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan.

In “Wild Cursive,” a decidedly dry work from 2005 choreographed by Lin Hwai-min and performed by his company at the Howard Gilman Opera House on Tuesday, the stage was a collage of clichés: mysterious movement to resemble the slinky lines of calligraphy, all set to a sound score by Jim Shum and Liang Chun-mei evoking elements from nature, including chirping birds, rainfall and wind gusts. There was also plenty of silence, which did more to elicit patience in the viewer than profound thoughts.

As the final installment of “Cursive: A Trilogy,” the production follows “Cursive” (2001) and “Cursive II” (2003), dances inspired by Mr. Lin’s study of Chinese calligraphy. In “Wild Cursive” Mr. Lin tries to emulate ideas from kuang chao, or wild calligraphy, a form that, according to the program, “frees characters from any set form and exposes the spiritual state of the writer in its expressive abstraction.”

Scrolls of translucent rice paper unfold from the ceiling; as they dangle, black ink trickles from above, creating feathery designs that change from one night to the next. (The set concept is credited to Mr. Lin.) Throughout the work’s 11 segments, the repetitive choreography, like the ink, bleeds from one section to the next, but with little distinction.

Wearing simple black costumes by Sammy Wang, dancers weave among the scrolls, crouching low to the floor, then springing up in a leap or a darting kick. Their feet, with toes splayed, curl inward; their arms, held in a constant curve, are topped by florid fingers. Yet no matter how supple the body, the effect of watching a dancer embody the action of calligraphy is, largely, an unconvincing simulation.

Even though the dancers, notably Chou Chang-ning, retain a certain polish — sharp in attack and somewhat convincing in slow-motion sensuality — there isn’t enough variety to sustain interest in the action onstage. When several women stand behind the scrolls in silhouette in the only real deviation from the more obvious curlicue meandering, the poses seem contrived. Nothing about “Wild Cursive” is quite wild enough.