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Hong
Kong Dance Company appoints new Artistic Director
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Mr. Leung Kwok-shing,
Artistic Director of HKDC won the Award for Best Artist
2007/08 of the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2008 by
Hong Kong Arts Development Council
From left: Mr. Deng Jun
(Guangdong South Culture Development Co. Ltd.), Mr.
William Leung, JP（Chairman of the Board of Directors of
HKDC）, Mr. Leung Kwok-shing (Artistic Director of HKDC),
Mr. Chen Weiya (Chief Artistic Advisor of HKDC), Mr. Ho
Ho-cheun (Director of Ho Ho-cheung Dance Troupe)
[Hong Kong - 22 April 2009]
The Hong Kong Dance Company today announces the
appointment of Mr. Leung Kwok-shing as Artistic
Director, and Mr. Chen Weiya as Chief Artistic Advisor
of the Company.
As one of the flagship arts organizations, Hong Kong
Dance Company (the Company) undertakes the important missions of
promoting Chinese dance culture and the arts identity of Hong Kong. The
Company also actively involves in developing dance education, expanding
the arts markets in the mainland and overseas, and promoting local arts
to the international audience.
To live up to these commitments, the Company’s Board of Directors
decided to appoint Mr. Leung Kwok-shing, who was formerly Assistant
Artistic Director of the Company, to the position of Artistic Director
with effect from April 2009 for a contract term of two years. Mr. Leung
has long affiliation to the Company. He was one of the founding artists
of the Company, and has assumed different roles such as rehearsal
master, choreographer and director in the Company.
Leung returned to the Company as Assistant Artistic Director in 2005,
and since then, has created many fabulous works for the Company. His
works included The Evacuation Order, a dance drama with
historical background of Hong Kong; Classical Retrospective –
Suppressed Romance & The Story of Zhou Xuan, a dance drama presented
characteristic feature of Lingnan culture; Qingming Riverside, a
dance poem inspired by the national treasure Qingming Riverside;
The Smiling,
Proud
Wanderer
and also Snow Fox, both adapted from the classic martial arts
novels of Jin Yong with local characteristics. All his works were
well-received by the audience and critics. Among his works, Qingming
Riverside received the Hong Kong Dance Award 2008, and the Special
Grand Award and the First Class Award for Choreography and Directorship
at the Tenth Guangdong Arts Festival. Mr. Yu Ping, Division Head of the
Department of Arts, Ministry of Culture of the Mainland, praised Leung
in an article and described Leung as a choreographer who is "able to
capture and extract the delicate essence of classic motions, and capable
of producing outstanding dance works.” Furthermore, Leung plays leading
role in the development of dance education. He founded the Children’s
Troupe and Youth Troupe in 2006 and 2008 respectively, and he will
further establish the Young Persons’ Troupe this year, aiming at
nurturing young dance talents.
In recognition of Leung's outstanding contributions in promoting the art
of dance in Hong Kong in recent years, the Hong Kong Arts Development
Council awarded him the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2008. With Mr
Leung's intensive experience in the field of Chinese Dance, the Board of
Directors is confident that he can take the Company to achieve new
heights under his leadership.
The Board of Directors also announces the appointment of Mr. Chen Weiya
as the Company’s Chief Artistic Advisor. Chen is a renowned director in
China, the Artistic Director as well as Vice Master of the
China Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble (a state
class art troupe), the Chief Associate Director of the opening and
closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and the Chief
Director of the opening ceremony for the 5th East Asian Games (Hong
Kong). He will advise the Company on its artistic direction, assess the
quality of its productions, and assist the Company to raise its
international standing through his personal network overseas and within
the Mainland.
Leung Kwok-shing
Artistic Director
Graduated from Guangdong Dance School,
Leung Kwok-shing joined HKDC in 1981 as the first cohort
of company dancers. He led the cast in the first grand
dance dramas Romance of the Eastern Sea and
New Flower of the Mirror, and later served as an
rehearsal master, choreographer and director in the
company. Since 2005, Leung has been the Assistant
Artistic Director of Hong Kong Dance Company. Leung is
recognized as a capable choreographer in Chinese Dance
in Hong Kong, and his creations are based on traditional
Chinese art and dance forms, blending Eastern and
Western cultures together. He has also choreographed
numerous highly acclaimed dance dramas and performances.
His appointed works include The Story of Zhou Xuan,
Suppressed Romance (1991), and Rouge (a
collaborative work with the renowned
dancer/choreographer Shu Qiao). Since then his
productions include Classical Retrospective,
King of Fairy Tales—The Eternal
Child, The Smiling,
Proud Wanderer, Qingming Riverside
and Snow Fox.
Suppressed Romance,
a Guangdong folk dance that blended East and West, was
praised for being uniquely Hong Kong. Musical dance
drama The Smiling,
Proud Wanderer
was regarded as a "fabulously choreographed, superbly
structured" piece by famous martial arts novelist Jin
Yong, the original author of the story. Qingming
Riverside was praised as an artistically elegant
dance poem and invited to be staged at the “5th Beijing
Arts Festival”, and toured to Hangzhou, Nanjing,
Guangdong. It was also staged in the National Centre for
the Performing Arts as part of the “Meet in Beijing
2008” Arts Festival. The audience encored and honoured
it as a marvelous Chinese dance poem in a recent era. It
also triumphed at the “2008 Hong Kong Dance Awards” and
won the “Special Grand Award” and the “First Class Award
for Choreography and Direction” at the “2008 Guangdong
Art Festival”. In 2008, he created The Call of Life
to raise fund for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.
He was also involved in the choreography of Hong Kong –
Equestrian Capital, which represented Hong Kong at the
opening ceremony of the “Beijing Olympic Games 2008” in
the Beijing National Stadium, and again achieved great
success. Leung won the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards
2008 by Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2008. He
had also created and choreographed dance pieces in
celebration of the establishment of the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region and China's National Day.
Leung is the Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Dance
Company starting from April 2009.
Chen Weiya
Chief Artistic Advisor
 Chen
Weiya, renowned director in contemporary China, is
serving as the Artistic Director as well as Vice Master
of the China Oriental Song and Dance Ensemble (a state
class art troupe), member of the Chinese People’s
Political Consultative Conference, Vice Chairman of the
Chinese Dancers' Association and Vice Chairman of the
Beijing Dancers' Association. He is a recipient of the
State Council special subsidies for professionals and a
member of the “Four Groups’ Scheme” under the Publicity
Department of the Communist Party of China Central
Committee. Chen is among the “100 Exceptional Artists”
in China, “10 Genius Art Performers” of China, and
Beijing municipality's “Deyishuangxin” Artists.
He is a recipient of the Asiatic Society scholarship and
is a professor at the Beijing Dance Academy. He was the
Chief Associate Director of the opening and closing
ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games, and his success
earned him a Gold Medal presented by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State
Council. He is the most important director of cultural
performances at grand openings in terms of the number of
events directed and the reputation.
Chen created more than a
dozen of dance drama titles including A Dream on
Dunghuang, Emotions in Old
Summer
Palace,
Silk Road and the Blue Sea,
Greenland,
Sacred Song, Emperor Qin, A Chinese
Odyssey and An Empress and the Warriors. He
also choreographed more than 150 dance pieces such as
Return of Mulan, Soul of Terracotta Warrior,
To Take Command, Nezha Rampaging the Sea
and Fly to the Sky. Chen created Secret
Journey, a grand dance event for the China Dance
Company, and Blue Romance, an international dance
event for the Dongfang Dance Company. He choreographed
more than twenty acrobatic dramas including Journey
to the West, which was the first acrobatic
performance to receive the Wenhua Award during at the
8th China Arts Festival.
He received more than 50 awards including the National
Fine Dance Arts Project Award, “Wu Ge Yi” Project Award
from Publicity Department, Wenhua Award from the
Ministry of Culture, "Peach and Blossom Cup" in four
consecutive years, Starlight First Class Award for
cultural TV programmes, Best Dance Piece for TV
Programmes at the China Central Television Dance
Competition, and many others. His status was recognised
by the Oxford University who has included him as a
contemporary dance in The International Encyclopedia of
Dance.
He was the Chief Director of many performances at
large-scale events, such as Hello-21 at the
opening ceremony of the 21st Universiade, Romance of
Heaven and Earth at the opening ceremony of the 1999
Kunming International Horticultural Exposition, Time
Symphony at the opening ceremony of the 10th
National Games of the People’s Republic of China,
Macau Symphony
Poem
at the opening ceremony of the 4th East Asian Games
(Macau), Scenery of Southeast Asian at the
opening ceremony of International Expo of Association of
Southeast Asian Nations from 2004 to 2006, and the
cultural performance at Ministry of Culture's Spring
Festival Special Show from 1997 to 1999 and 2004. He was
also the Deputy Chief Director of the 2005 Spring
Festival Special Show of the China Central Television.
Chen is currently the Chief Director of the opening
ceremony for the 5th East Asian Games (Hong Kong), and
will be the Chief Director of the opening and closing
ceremonies for the 2010 16th Asian Games (Guangzhou).
Hong Kong Dance Company
Established by the former Urban Council in 1981, with
the aim of promoting Chinese dance, the Hong Kong Dance
Company was formally incorporated in April 2001 as a
charitable and non-profit-making institution, and is
financially supported by the Government of Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region.
Since its inception, the Hong Kong Dance Company has
staged over 100 productions, many of which were highly
popular and won critical acclaim. Recent productions
include The Border Town, Red Poppies, Little Panda in a
Big Big World, Dream Dances, The Smiling, Proud
Wanderer, Qingming Riverside, Angel Falls, Desperately
Seeking Miss Blossom, Mulan, Snow Fox and Princess
Changping. The Company has also performed overseas and
in the mainland to foster cultural exchange.
Media Enquiries
For rehearsal visits or interviews, please contact Hong
Kong Dance Company Marketing and Development Department:
Marketing and Development Manager – Catherine Yau
Tel：3103 1828 Fax：2851 3607/ 60269244 Email：catherine@hkdance.com
Assistant Manager (Marketing and Development) – Joyce
Chung
Tel：3103 1810 Fax：2851 3607/ 98779677 Email：joyce@hkdance.com
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