2023/24 Dance Season Opening : A Dance of Celestial Rhythms

In Timeless Communion with Nature, We Dance
 

Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) is kicking off its new Dance Season with Grand Dance Poem, A Dance of Celestial Rhythms, in September 2023. Choreographed by Artistic Director Yang Yuntao, this splendid opening performance is about to captivate the audience with stunning visuals, inspiring music, state-of-the-art lighting effects and an atmospheric olfactory experience; moving through the natural cycles of time and life, and ultimately gaining a vivid understanding of the nature.

Multisensory experience

The “Twenty-Four Solar Terms”, inscribed on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is not only an important aspect of traditional Chinese culture and wisdom, but is also closely related to the necessities of life. “Our mission with this new work goes far beyond the solar terms themselves. We want to reflect on the various aspects of modern life by drawing on ancient wisdom. Metaphysically speaking, it is both a tribute to the natural world around us and a call for its protection,” Yang says.  

In presenting the work, HKDC has invited various Asian designers from different disciplines to collaborate with local artists, in addition to an exceptional fragrance experience to be sponsored by Aēsop, aiming to arouse the audience’s visual, auditory and olfactory senses. Through the HKDC dancers’ virtuosity, the audience is encouraged to delight in each of the solar terms, essentially, to get back in touch with nature –  with the seasonal changes that unfold around us all the time and that we have a tendency to ignore.  

Collaboration between Asian designers and local artists

“I attempt to express the changing of the seasons naturalistically by using different lead instruments for each solar term, illustrating a ‘dialogue between nature and human beings’ in the call-and-response format,” Korean composer Kim Chulhwan shares. Min Chunhong, costume designer from Korea, on the other hand, has extended the idea of life cycle of a person to his costume design. Min says, “Costume in this work not only amplifies beauty in a simple way, but also extends the most primitive lines of movement and expands its scope, so it becomes an important prop in itself that makes the dancer’s subtle expression of the scene even more profound.”  Meanwhile, the creative technique of generative art simulates the law of growth for all things in nature that the solar term implied. It enables the image to reveal an uncertainty and vitality closely related to nature. “For me, this will be the debut of a spectacular combination of generative art and dance,” Lin Jinyao, digital image designer from Taiwan, is excited to express. “The inspiration of the stage design came from the fluidity of air flowing, imitating the veins of a leaf and the silhouette of mountain ranges. The irregular stage set is giving audience a close-up to the refined micro landscape of the nature,” set designer from Hong Kong, LCM, explains.

Grand Dance Poem, A Dance of Celestial Rhythms, presented by Hong Kong Dance Company will be performed from 29 September to 1 October 2023 at Auditorum, Sha Tin Town Hall. Come join us on a journey of discovery and inspiration through the four seasons. 

 

Grand Dance Poem "A Dance of Celestial Rhythms"

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For using all images and videos, please credit at caption: 
Grand Dance Poem "A Dance of Celestial Rhythms", 2023. Courtesy of Hong Kong Dance Company.