In step with the times

As it celebrates its 35th anniversary, the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) is preparing to take to the stage with an exciting new range of shows. “The Legend of Mulan” is still the company’s flagship production, drawing capacity crowds for the last four years, but the current season is more likely to appeal to the younger generation with performances of “Storm Clouds”, “Reveries of the Red Chamber” and “Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword”.

The HKDC’s adaptations of Chinese classics are usually produced with a view to making these more relevant to the audience. While the trend in cinema or literature has been to make a super-hero of Mulan, HKDC’s artistic director Yang Yuntao is in favour of playing up the human side of the fable, trying to draw parallels with the daily lives of common people. “For people like us with no personal experience of war, the saga of Mulan in the battlefield seems too far away from our lives. However, the filial ties and fortitude displayed by Mulan in a harsh environment can strike the right chord with a contemporary audience,” Yang says.

The HKDC’s performances resonate well with the audience also because of their emphasis on conveying the emotion of a piece. 

“We scale down the display of dance techniques in favour of a smooth conveying of emotion,” says the company’s principal dancer Pan Lingjuan. “Even an abrupt kick – a basic dance move – might come in the way of the audience appreciating the mood of the moment.” 

Dancer Tong Chi-man reiterates the importance of maintaining perfect synchronicity between dancers performing in a group. “Each move by a dancer in a group plays an important part to help immerse the audience into the story,” he says.

It took Yang a while to figure what the audience really like. The productions that seemed to him to have reached a level of creative excellence after he had put in hours of hard work, failed at the box office. 

For example, “Spring Ritual-Eulogy”, in which performers simulated the movement of brush strokes drawing Chinese characters, did not go down too well with the audience. On the other hand, the shows Yang had put together without much artistic thought turned out to be hits. For example, his adaptation of “A Chinese Ghost Story” more or less followed the original version, which was well taken by the audience. 

“The loud applause from the audience surprised but also disappointed me. I realised they were cheering more on account of their memory of the classic story rather than my creation,” Yang says. 

Since then, Yang has considered both factors – familiarity and artistic innovation – while choreographing new shows.

To get a better understanding of local taste, Yang, who is from the mainland, has tied up with Hong Kong comic artist Ma Wing-shing. Together they worked on the dance dramas “Storm Clouds” which debuted in 2014 and “Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword”, which opens later this year.

Adapting “Storm Clouds” from a popular comic series by Ma Wing-shing was an experiment. Readers, who had never been to a dance drama performance before, attended the show. “Some fans told me openly that they came only because they liked Ma’s work although they weren’t that interested in dance,” Yang says. “But I am satisfied that they had their first experience of entering a theatre to see my work.”

The HKDC now targets potential audience across the board, as they believe everyone should have a taste of this performance form. Yang revealed that next year they have plans of bringing the story of Hong Kong movies from the 1970s to 1980s on stage. 

The HKDC’s repertoire covers ancient Chinese ballads, martial arts-based legends, ethnic folklore and stories set in the present. While each genre is presented in its distinctive style, Yang has combined contemporary and traditional Chinese dance styles, as well as worked out unlikely fusions between the East and the West. “I think this is exactly where our strength lies,” says Yang. “It gives us greater flexibility in terms of artistic expression. In my eyes, the boundary between East and West has already blurred.”

Last year, the HKDC presented “The Legend of Mulan” at New York’s Lincoln Centre. Last month, they performed the-acclaimed dance drama, “The Butterfly Lovers”, at a dance festival in Seoul.

Yang and his troupe enjoy their trips abroad. They are too seasoned by now to get overwhelmed by the newness and unfamiliarity of a culture different from theirs. “I never see a theatre abroad as a totally strange place. I can always make good friends with people from different cultural backgrounds,” Yang says.

Tong feels that as trained users of body language, it’s probably easier for dancers to communicate with people from a different culture. The principle of communicating without words also works internally, as the HKDC’s dancers come from different parts of China, and speak different dialects.

Pan recalls an anecdote about meeting a fan during the performance of Mulan at Lincoln Centre. “He waited backstage for more than an hour to meet me. When he finally did, he was totally surprised at my height, as I seemed much taller playing Mulan on stage,” says Pan, smiling.

Evidently, an HKDC show can work like magic on the audience. Someone playing the heroine assumes larger-than-life proportions on stage, by dint of a performance delivered with panache.