Dance “IN” possible VI

TransDance

Y-Space’s Brand New Dance Work in 2019 in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Dance “In” Possible Series to Explore the Possibilities and Impossibilities of Dance!

Performance Date & Time
2019.5.10 (FRI) 8:00pm*
2019.5.11 (SAT) 8:00pm
2019.5.12 (SUN) 3:00pm

^{* With Post-performance talk}

Venue
Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre

The Dance “IN” Possible series has been Y-Space’s on-going dance series since it began in 1999 with Dance “In” Possible!? I . Counting in this year’s Dance “IN” Possible VI – TransDance, it has been 20 years extending to six series and 8 pieces of dance works. These include Dance “In” Possible!?I in 1999 as mentioned previously, Dance “In” Possible II – Dark Corner and Dance “In” Possible III – This is a Dance Performance!? , both created in 2000, and Dance “In” Possible IV – Victor Ma’s Dance Exhibition I&II , as devised in 2009. In 2016, Victor Ma and Mandy Yim were both over 50 years old (their ages added up to 101 years old). To this end, they hoped to make retrospection for reviewing their past and this resulted in Dance “IN” Possible V : 101. The dance series aims to explore the relationships among theatre, dance, the act of performing and life; and through re-examining and retrospecting Victor and Mandy’s own creative processes through the years , the two have explored the unmapped territories of dance.

Dance “IN” Possible VI-TransDance is a product of artistic collaborations across a spectrum of artists, which is quite a rare scene in Hong Kong’s theatre-making discipline. The dance piece’s English title TransDance points to transcendence, translation and transformation in dance and prompts us to think what will happen when all these artistic elements collided and got translated, transcended and transformed into dance? Some says that a piece of collaborative works is multiplicity and multi-faceted. In this year’s production, Victor Choi-wo Ma and Mandy Ming-yin Yim have specially invited artist friends from different disciplines to participate in the creation. These different disciplines include dance, music, video, literature, ceramics, photography, lighting, sound, visual arts , costume and set design. All the artists come into the rehearsal room striped of their own ego, waiting for the ideas that never had existed before everyone met to come into existence. This condition of the creative process can be likened to the state of our world in the Chinese legendary story Pangu – when at first the sky and the earth were one blurred entity. But once the process begins, it becomes lively, like the works of nature.

And you, are you ready to join Victor, Mandy and fellow artists to witness the fruits of their journey into the uncharted territory of dance?

Prologue

Music: Tsang Man Tung

Singing Bowl Bronze Mirror

1

Text: Cally Yu
Music: Edmund Leung

1. Mirror and Ash
2. Hundred Years Theatre

2

Music: Edmund Leung

3

Ceramic: Suzy Cheung
Music: Edmund Leung

Pale Blue Dot
Text and Narration: Carl Sagan
Music: Get Physical (Original Mix)

4

Ceramic Bricks: Cheung Chi Wai
Music: Edmund Leung

5

Hey Billy
Composer: Dave Gaydon, Mark Revell, Maff Scott, Nad Scott


6

Music and Text: Nelson Hiu*

^{*Appearance by kind permission of City Contemporary Dance Company}

7

Music: Brazil
Composer: Ary Barroso

Ending

Dance Text: Mandy Ming-yin Yim
Music: Edmund Leung

Director, Conceiver, Choreographer and Dancer

Victor Choi-wo MA

Victor Choi-wo MA founded Y-Space in 1995 and is the Artistic Director. He was in the first graduating class of the School of Dance of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). Upon graduation, he joined The Hong Kong Ballet, and resumed study at the HKAPA School of Drama in 1990. In 1996, he received the Asian Cultural Council Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship to conduct research on dance and theatre in the USA. In 2002, he further received the Hong Kong Arts Development Council – University of Leeds – Chevening Scholarships for a Master’s degree programme in Performance Studies in the UK. As a choreographer with over 60 creations, he has also been a movement director for many local and international companies. His major works include None of Your Business, Not a Double Room, Unconscious I & II, Dance “In” Possible!? I – V, Improvisation Land Series 1 – 62, Air and Breath I & II, Body, I.D. & Space I – V, Victor Ma’s Dance Exhibition I & II, RE/evolution, Suddenly, On and On and Turn Turn Turn…etc. He has been the Artistic Director and Curator of i-Dance (Hong Kong) since 2009.

Producer, Conceiver, Choreographer and Dancer

Mandy Ming-yin YIM

Co- founder of Y-Space, Mandy Yim graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts School of Dance in 1998. She was the dancer of The Hong Kong Ballet and City Contemporary Dance Company from 1988 – 1996. She was a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship in 1996 to do her dance research in the USA. In 2000, she was invited to create a site-specific work＂Chop-Suey” for the Harare International Festival of the Arts, September in same year, was invited to attend the Norway Oktoberdans Festival & End of Millenium Festival and participate in performing arts festival of artists-in-residence program, has also been invited to Germany Delesideng Tanzwoche Festival Wishful Thinking Project (2001), Korea Fringe Festival (2002), India Kolkata Interface Festival (2004), Australia Melbourne Beyond Butoh Fringe Festival (2005), Beijing Dashanzi International Art Festival (2005), Shenzhen OCAT Comtemporary Dance Festival & Hunan Changde (2009), Poland International Comtemporary Dance Conference & Performance Festival (2008, 2010), i-Dance Taipei (2011), i-Dance Korea (2012, 2016, 2018), i-Dance Japan creation (2013, 2015, 2017), Hunan and Beijing of China for performances and exchanges. Since 2009, Yim has acted as the producer of i-Dance Festival (HK) and her teaching, performances, creation toured Europe, Asia and Africa. Yim is currently the Education and Outreach Director of Y-Space.

Devising Dancer

WEN Hui

A choreographer and dancer, Wen Hui also makes documentary films and installations. She is one of the pioneers of Chinese contemporary dance theatre. Wen Hui graduated from Beijing Dance Academy in 1989 with a degree in Choreography. In 1994, she studied modern dance in New York. From 1997 to 1998, she received a scholarship from Asian Cultural Council to further her study of modern dance and theatre making in New York. In 1994, she formed Living Dance Studio with Wu Wenguang in Beijing, and has participated in curating and organizing numerous arts projects. For twenty years, Wen Hui has insisted in using theatre as an intervention in the society. Since 2008, she began to research the ways body form the archive of personal social documentation, using personal means to experiment how bodily memory catalyzes collision between history and reality.
Living Dance Studio is an independent non-profit contemporary dance creative collective. Since 1994 till now, the company has been active at the cutting-edge of Chinese contemporary art as well as the most probing stages and festivals internationally. They have presented their works in over seventy cities in thirty countries, winning international high appraisals.
French magazine Télescope describes Wen Hui as “a pioneer of dance…a miracle.”
In 2015 Wen Hui’s work: “Dancing with Third Grandmother”, “Dancing with Farmer workers”at the Venice Biennale in Italy.
In 2004, Report on Body by Living Dance Studio won the “ZKB Patronage Prize” in Zürcher Theater Spektakel.
In 2005, Wen Hui and Wu Wenguang established Caochangdi Workstation and co-curated the first “Cross-arts” International Dance Festival in Beijing. In the same year, they initiated European Artists Exchange Project and Young Choreographers Project.

Devising Dancer

Billy Siu-kit CHAN

Graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1988, major in Chinese Dance and was awarded “the Dean of School of Dance School Scholarship.” He was a full-​time dancer at The Hong Kong Dance Company from 1988 to 1997. In 1999, he set up Billy Chan Dance Concepts (BCDC) and focus on training new generation dancers while improving the standard of street dance. He has been a guest lecturer at the HKAPA since 1998. Chan is also an active choreographer in school dance competitions and commercial engagements.

Video Designer

觀鳴 Avaloki T @ IZEN

To Ride the Surging Tide of Thoughts;
To Surf the Billowing Waves ofAart
As an art practitioner who is led by art and works in Tao’s way, Avaloki T has a great passion in injecting spirituality and philosophical concepts into his multimedia visual artworks. Through impromptu visual creation, he experiences fully the flow of the mind. A consultant and a founding member of IZEN, which is an artistic and cultural platform that realizes and promotes diversity in art forms and presentations.

VJ:EVFO
A VJ duo from Hong Kong, with a portfolio of works drawing inspirations from photography, fashion, music and aesthetics design; the content of which is full of fantasies and emotions.

VJ Fushi Lee
In 2000, VJ Fushi Li became interested in DISCO, RAVE, and CLUBING cultures. He believes that the combination of auditory and visual experiences in driving the scene’s atmosphere is the real enjoyment.

VJ EvilKoo
With 5 years experience in Commercial Advertising After Effects, with considerable amount of understanding in visual design synthesis.

The following is the VJ duo’s website on their works:
The VJ duo has already performed in all scales of EDM, underground electronic music and large-scale parties not long after their debut.
http:// evilkoo.wixsite.com/vjsevfo

Costume and Set Designer

Carmen Wai-ying CHENG

Graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and obtained Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours), majoring in Set & Costume Design. She has participated in set & costume design for over 100 productions including dance, drama, musical, installation, exhibition, music video, film, advertisement, concert, etc. Cheng has also worked for some of the Hong Kong arts group including The Hong Kong Ballet as set mistress and stage manager; Zuni Icosahedron as deputy stage manager; Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra as wardrobe mistress and Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation as stage manager and production manager, etc. She is now the Creative Director of ‘Surge Production’ and ‘Globe Slicker’.

Lighting Designer

MAK Kwok Fai

Fai is a graduate of the APA with BFA Honours Degree major in Theatre Lighting. He has worked as technical director / lighting designer for numerous productions that include: 1 table 2 chairs (Festival of Vision ¡V Berlin), Vanity Fair (World of Extremes, Lisbon), King Lear and 2001: a Hong Kong odyssey (L.C.S.D.). Fai’s Lighting Designs include Dancing in the Sun 2000 (CCDC), Ashima (HKDC), Albert Au in Concert 2000, and a Chamber Opera ~ Comb of Three Kings and Night Banquet (HKAF). Fai is one of the Hong Kong’s most experienced Automated Light Programmer and Production Electrician working on many of Hong Kong’s major productions.

Ceramic

Suzy Kai-sun CHEUNG

Born in Hong Kong, Suzy received her training in visual design in the USA and Canada. Since returning to Hong Kong in 1984, she worked as art director for feature films, stage productions and TV commercials. She began working with ceramics in 1990, and in recent years has focused on creating with clay. In 2003, she graduated and obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art), and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2006 with The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. Her works draw upon her perceptions of nature, and are extensions of her personal experiences. They are journeys of self-discovery that explore the various possibilities that can arise from different life attitudes and choices.

Bricks and Photos

CHEUNG Chi Wai

Stage photographer and teacher , living designer, like sharing , reading , nature and realize day dreaming . Full time shooting for various arts groups and arts organizations, use camera to watch art performances for a living . He awarded the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship to New York for further study in 1996. Conception and production of personal photography ” identity exchange ” to explore Hong Kong ‘s identity and image in 2006, frequently photographed ” stage ” to extend into the living environment in Hong Kong . He founded the “Island Rhapsody ” with like-minded friends in 2014 and practice the scientific literature and nature education , and promote creativity.

Bronze Mirror and Ash

TSANG Man Tung

Graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a B.A. (Hons) degree. Tsang has been awarded the Best Stage Design, Best Costume Design and Best Styling of the Hong Kong Drama Awards, the Award for Best Artist (Drama) (2008) and the Rising Artist Award (2003), both by the HKADC. With an Asian Cultural Council grant he participated in research projects at the Yale University. In 2012 his stage design for Double Swallow was named the “Outstanding Design for Dance” at the Hong Kong Dance Awards, and in 2013 Wild Boar as the Best Stage Design of the Hong Kong Drama Awards. Tsang established the “Allpamama Healing Circle” in 2010 to focus on vibrating healing and performance with the Himalayan singing bowl.

Text

Cally Yeuk-mui YU

Yu is a Chinese writer with strong concern on Hong Kong cultural and social development. She published four novels and one book collected interviews on the topic of “freedom” and “independent” with 12 women. She also produces poems, theatre text, art critics, interviews and feature stories for local newspapers and magazines since 1997. Starting in 2009, she experiments with different visual art elements, body movements and text, in theater production and social happenings. She was one of the writers-​in-​residence of Hong Kong section in Liverpool Biennial 2012 and critic-​in-​residence of Macau City Fringe Festival 2012. Her recent project is “Grey and Green Ping Pong”, a long term collaborative community art platform, to advocate the concept of creative aging.

Composer and Musician

Nelson HIU

Nelson Hiu studied Ethnomusicology at the University of Hawaii, and moved to Hong Hong in 1985 where he took up dance music accompaniment as a profession. Hiu’s interest in music improvisation comes from the social unrest of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and has thirty plus years of experience in numerous locations for variety of performances including experimental improvisational music, sound, music for dance and music for theatre. His innovative uses of instruments include the bamboo flute, drums, erhu, guqin, electronic musical instruments and voice. Sound sources range from found sound, electronics sound, traditional ethnic instruments, guitar, electric guitar, piano to percussion. He has performed in the Mainland, Japan, Taiwan, Germant and the United States. His discographies include Music for Roaches, Birds & Other Creatures, Still Here, POK and Normal Free.

Sound Designer Composer and Musician

Edmund LEUNG

A living, breathing entity with major components made of water, carbon, minerals and other compounds. Atomically stable, able to contemplate the vastness of the universe while smiling in the floating air, that is me, and also you…Album producer/​musician/​ex-​guitarist and vocal of Huh!?

Costume Coordinator and Assistant Stage Manager

WONG Ping Tong

I have studied the Fast Track Intensive Training Programme at HKAPA, majoring in props making. The more I work in theatre, the more I found myself full of passion in the theater. Therefore I am determined to develop in this field.

Assistant Stage Manager

何馼倬

I have been the set designer for numerous productions and the assistant stage manager for Think Big Theatre’s One Funeral; One Wedding 2015
There are other productions which I have taken part.

Stage Manager and Deputy Stage Manager

Ding Dong KWONG

With a great passion working in the theatre.

Presented and Produced by
Y-Space

Media Partner

Acknowledgement
Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Special Thanks to
Dora Suet-man LAI
Wong Yan Kwai
Green Wave Art
Hoi Chiu
Muk Tau-Guitar Workshop
City Contemporary Dance Company

The presenter reserves the right to alter the programme and the artists.