MASKED gods and goddesses, shaman, priestesses, sacrificial souls, and now and then ordinary people in street dress come together in a thought-provoking dance ritual that draws on myth and modernity.

Based on a 2,300-year-old Chinese poem, "Nine Songs," the internationally acclaimed creation of Taiwan's Cloud Gate Dance Theater recently staged its first and last performances in Shanghai. After more than 20 years, the awe-inspiring, sometimes jarring and disturbing show makes its final Chinese mainland tour, a final international tour, and then retires to the history books of choreography. Choreographer Lin Hwai-min says he wants to make way for new works.

Musical and mythical elements from the Tibet Autonomous Region, India and Java and indigenous tribes of Taiwan Island play a role in the powerful, ritualistic spectacle. It depicts rituals of birth, life, love, sex, death, rebirth, and onward in a cycle.

Last month Lin received the 2013 American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement. It honors those who have made significant contributions to dance.

Past recipients include Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Paul Taylor, Trisha Brown and William Forsythe.

In Shanghai, Lin also took part in a program run by The Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative. This international philanthropic scheme seeks out highly talented young artists from around the world and brings them together with great masters for a year of creative collaboration through one-to-one mentoring.

Lin was the first recipient working primarily in Asia. The festival said:

"Mr Lin's fearless zeal for the art form has established him as one of the most dynamic and innovative choreographers today. While his works often draw inspiration from traditional elements of Asian culture and aesthetics, his choreographic brilliance continues to push boundaries and redefine the art form."

Lin's distinguished career as a choreographer has spanned more than four decades and helped shape the Chinese modern dance scene. He is also a noted writer involved in Taiwan's literary scene.

The legendary choreographer didn't start a career in dancing until he was 26 years old.

Born in 1947 in Taiwan, he had a promising career as a writer, then switched to journalism, returned to literary writing and took a modern dance class, which struck a chord. He graduated with a fine arts degree in literary writing from the University of Iowa, studied for several months at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York and at the Merce Cunningham Studio.

In 1973, he founded what would become Taiwan's internationally known Cloud Gate Dance Theater. At the time, the reception for modern dance was not welcoming.

Lin's choreography uses Asian elements such as calligraphy, Peking Opera, fresco painting, historical stories and legends, and he is always looking for new forms of expression. His dancers not only practice dance, but also study martial arts, tai chi, meditation and calligraphy.

"I realized I knew so little about my own culture when I went to the US, so I felt a need to learn more about it when returned to Taiwan," he said.

The company's past productions include "Moon Water," "Cursive Trilogy," "Dream of the Red Chamber," "Songs of Wanderers" and "Tale of the White Serpent," all drawing on elements of traditional Chinese culture.

"Nine Songs," a heavyweight spectacle that originated 20 years ago, was sold out at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center.

The two-hour performance was divided into eight chapters, such as "Goddess of the Xiang River," "God of Clouds" and "Homage to the Fallen."

The visuals are simple, striking and disciplined. Lin uses the poetry of "Nine Songs" by Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) as a ladder to carry his understanding. The poems reflect on primitive rituals enacting the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Many people say contemporary dance is difficult to understand. Lin encourages audiences to just enjoy the dance, rather than trying to understand it.

"I can't explain Qu Yuan, and we don't have the means to present him," Lin told reporters. He also spoke briefly with Shanghai Daily. "If Qu Yuan sits there, he wouldn't understand it either, because this is not about his works, but a ritual."

"Dance is not for people to understand, it is for people to feel," Lin explained, and everyone can have his or her own interpretation.

In one segment, a dance by the God of Clouds was performed on the backs of two men. The god dancer didn't touch the ground for eight minutes; he couldn't see clearly behind his mask on the dimly lit stage. The scene was rehearsed for a year.

"We are taking the form of a ritual, this dance is a ceremony of modern people in a modern theater," Lin said. "The ceremony is music, dance and drama. We return to the truth of nature and interpret it in today's environment."

In the last chapter, "Honor the Dead," dancers dressed in white entered slowly and quietly, forming a river of life consisted of 800 candles.

The staging was designed by Li Mingjue, Tony Award winner in 1983 for designing the stage of the Broadway opera "K2." The theme of the "Nine Songs" staging is the lotus, which appears painted on the backdrop; artificial lotuses are floated in channel of water on the stage.

"Nine Songs" was a watershed production, since it took Cloud Gate to the most important theaters and festivals in the world. The production was closed in 2007 because it was extremely demanding, with complex stage sets and many dancers.

In 2008 a fire destroyed Cloud Gate studio and virtually everything was in ashes, the props were gone. But the masks used in "Nine Songs" survived.

After that fire five years ago, Lin held the mask worn by the God of Couds and said, "One day, we will have the ribbons of the God of Clouds fly on the stage."

The masks are spiritual, according to Lin. They are made of the simplest materials, such as straw and fabric.

Frequently called the most important choreographer in Asia, Lin himself is very modest and down-to-earth. He founded the first modern dance company in a Chinese community at a time when no one knew what contemporary dance was about. And society in Taiwan wasn't quite ready to accept it.

"The first generation dancers were starving, they left home, because back then the profession didn't even exist there," Lin said.

While bringing in new blood all the time, Cloud Gate retains many veterans. Li Jingjun, the current assistant artistic director of Cloud Gate, is one of the first-generation dancers. In 1983, she joined the company at the age of 17 and since then has participated in more than 1,000 performances, dancing many memorable roles.

"I'm telling everyone with pride that the dancers who were with us from the beginning are still active in the world of dance today. Now they are around 60 years of age and greatly respected in Taiwan," Lin said.

From the very beginning, Cloud Gate reached out to communities and schools to inspire people with the power of dance. The company still stages grassroots performances today.

"So after 40 years, Cloud Gate is still the only full-time dance company in Taiwan, and we survived because of the applause and actual help from society," Lin said. "People need something spiritual, something to make them happy, and Cloud Gate is playing this role."

After the fire in 2008, Cloud Gate received more than 5,000 donations from Taiwanese.

One of Lin's principles is to never judge the quality of a performance by the nature of the audience. People have asked him whether he has a different sort of program for outdoor performances, community shows and performances in a regular theater.

"We can't underestimate people's taste in art. What we bring to New York, Paris and London is the exact same thing we perform in far-away villages in Taiwan, because you can only take the best work if people are to sit in the rain with you for two hours," Lin said.

"For me, dance critics from The New York Times are not the strictest, but these ordinary audience are, they are the ones who made me a choreographer."

That's a strange logic, but it's the story of Cloud Gate, he said.

In Taiwan, each outdoor performance attracts 40,000 to 50,000 people, and the audience energizes the dancers. Two years ago Cloud Gate staged a large outdoor performance in Hangzhou.

The dance company was a huge success early on because it presented innovation, the most important quality in choreography, Lin said. It cannot be standardized.

Lin chaired the choreography competition jury for the 1st Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition at the National Center for the Performing Arts in 2011. He will judge the second competition this July.

"You smell it, you don't have to look at a rose, but you smell the rose and you know that is a rose," Lin said. "I mean good work and bad work, the difference is very big."

After four decades, Lin says the future of Cloud Gate depends on his successors.

The company cultivates young choreographers, especially in Cloud Gate 2, a showcase for young talent founded in 1999. Cloud Gate 2 has younger dancers than the first company. "They do not do my work. Instead, young choreographers lead the company and they are doing a wonderful job."

Cloud Gate 2 has around 20 dancers and three or four choreographers. They perform in Taiwan while Cloud Gate tours the world.

"Each of the young choreographers is very individualist, very original," Lin said. "And they deal with their feelings from everyday life, which sometimes makes them more accessible to younger audiences."

This weekend "Nine Songs" staged in Guangzhou and it will travel to Chongqing next weekend for its last stop in the five-city mainland tour. It then tours overseas before the production is packed up for good.