Glimpses of Contemporary Dance from Europe
June is not always a popular month for performances. However, this June Hong Kong had quite a number of interesting shows, especially contemporary European dance.
Thomas Lebrun (France) x 2
Le French May brought two dance works by Thomas Lebrun during its closing week: Tel Quel! and Lied Ballet. While the former targets to younger audience, the later explores the interaction between classical music and body movement.
As stated in Lebrun’s forward in the house program, rather than narrate a simple tale, Tel Quel! is created to get young people to question. The four dancers are different in many ways, with two tall male and two short female dancers, making up an ensemble of strong contrasts. They fight, they sing, they tease each other, yet support each other and come together at times. In terms of movement, Tel Quel! lacks big leaps and quick turns, but is full of gestures and movement derived from daily life. It is light-hearted work and it is especially delightful to see the dancers playing innocent characters believably, making the piece humorous rather than silly.
Another full-length piece by Lebrun was Lied Ballet, which opened the Macau Arts Festival and closed this year’s Le French May. Unlike Tel Quel!, Lied Ballet is more serious and abstract. Dancers work as a group for most of the time, conducting a dialogue with the music through their bodies. In the first act, in black, they illustrate the music with high-energy gestures; while in the second act, they dance along with live music from a pianist and a tenor, creating a more mood with classical dance moves. In the last act, in uniform blue costumes, they perform as a group, however, moving individually in different ways, while working together as a whole.
It was a nice opportunity to see two works by the same French choreographer one after the other in the same week, particularly in totally different styles. However, possibly because of the venue location, both had small audiences. Although not instant classics, both works deserve bigger audiences.
Tom Dale (UK) Returns
Sadly, the same poor attendance plagued Refugees of the Septic Heart by Tom Dale Company. Although it was staged at City Hall in Central, not the Y-theatre in Chai Wan like the French works, the theatre was still only half-full on Sunday afternoon. Tom Dale Company from the UK is no stranger to Hong Kong audiences; they performed their immersive dance piece I infinite early last year at Kwai Ching’s Black Box Theatre. This new piece was for proscenium stage rather than the intimate space of last year’s work, and it had six dancers instead of being a solo.
As a program of the Leisure and Cultural Service Department’s Dance X Multimedia Series, extensive use of digital projections was expected, and they serve the performance well. Moving images from three projectors mapped to the white set, transform its blocks on stage into planets and galaxies in space, crazy worlds filled with rapidly changing digits and even a void in the future. The collaboration between choreographer Tom Dale and digital media artist Barret Hodgson creates a visually exciting piece of dance. The use of digital projection and lighting in Refugees of the Septic Heart might be less creative than in I infinite, and the text seems to a bit clichéd, but it is still a nice demonstration of how moving images can work hand in hand with dancing bodies, expanding the imagination and sparkling inspiration.
FOCUS on Belgium
Last but not least, in the last week of June, Hong Kong Arts Centre presented “FOCUS – From the United Kingdom of Belgium / Wnked to France” that brought not only dance performance from Belgium, but also video installations as well as master classes for local emerging choreographers. This is probably the first time a mini-festival that focusing on contemporary dance from a particular country was held in Hong Kong. Even though not many big names appeared in the line-up, it still had Thierry De Mey’s exciting video works, especially his three-screen Ma Mère L'oye.
The live performance was Contemporary Dance Double Bill: Masterclass Showcase + Happy Hour. The first part had three short solo dances created and danced by Hong Kong’s Blue Ka Wing, Greenmay, and Mao Wei. Each had one-to-one master classes with scenographer Simon Siegmann and choreographer Thierry Smits, and the results were appealing with simple yet powerful visual and audio choices, testament to the artists work with the Belgian masters.
The second part was the Asia Premiere of Happy Hour, a work-in-progress by Wooshing Machine. It is the fourth installment of Italian artist Mauro Paccagnella’s Conti Sparsi project, and he dances with his long term friend Alessandro Bernardeschi. In the style of poor theatre with only a table, two chairs, and simple props, it is a series of fragments, both artists illustrating different emotions and topics with relaxed movements, like two guys at a bar having an interesting chat, telling their personal tales during happy hour. Near the end, the duo artists leave the theatre for a few minutes each holding a beer. When they return, they invite the audience to come on stage and dance for them while they stand and watch from the wings!
Broaden One’s Horizon
Every year, Hong Kong has a lot of great stage performances form all over the globe, especially during large festivals. But sometimes the most exciting works are not those created by famous masters or with huge budgets. Small to medium scale productions are inspirational as well. In spite of the variety those emerging choreographers bring to the Hong Kong dance scene, local productions often lack innovative ideas, and are conservative. Perhaps local artists could learn from these contemporary European works - not to copy their ideas - but to broaden their horizons, appreciate dance differences to create interesting work to attract bigger audiences and even go abroad to showcase Hong Kong creativity to European audiences.
〔First published on "dance journal/hk" Vol. 17-4 (Aug 2015 / Sep 2015); 本文首刊於《舞蹈手札》Vol. 17-4（2015 年 8-9 月號）〕