Preview-Salty Roast Crane-CCDC
8-12-14
By: Meaghan McGurgan
Turn out your toes and move into a cannon! City Contemporary Dance Company is celebrating its 35th anniversary in Hong Kong and bringing together two weeks of modern dance. The City Contemporary Dance Festival started earlier this week and is showcasing performances from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong into one program. The Festival features brilliant performances, a dance photography exhibition and an exciting symposium to revisit CCDC’s contribution as the leading contemporary dance company in the Greater China Region over the past 35 years, active in promoting contemporary dance, nurturing upcoming choreographers and training young dancers.
CCDC is Hong Kong’s first full-time professional company to pioneer contemporary dance and Artistic Director Willy Tsao has inspired and elated audiences in Hong Kong and around the world with superb modern dance performances. Since 1979, this company of Hong Kong's finest dancers has presented over 200 original works to popular and critical acclaim. As it says on CCDC's own website, "CCDC's renown in reflecting the vigour and creativity of Hong Kong's vibrant, multi-faceted contemporary culture has astonished 50,000 audiences annually."
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Er Gao is one of these featured choreographers. He's created a new piece for the festival called Salty Roast Crane and is very excited to bring this piece to Hong Kong audiences. His work with Guangdong Modern Dance Company has a signature style that audiences have come to love. He explains. "I studied Cantonese opera before I further pursued modern dance training in The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. During the study, I realized that dancing technique is not the most critical. What I want is to extract elements from the Chinese cultural context and employ them in my contemporary dance choreography."
Hong Kong people love food and love dance, so this show seems like a smash hit for audiences. Salty Roast Crane is described by CCDC as, "Crane is a symbol of grace and dignity. But what if it’s stuck in a pot full of salt, cooking in the traditional Hakka way? Salty Roast Crane is a work about restrictions, expressing the struggle between chaos and loneliness, restlessness and indifferent, as well as the helpless yet sensitive contemporary."
The choreographer of Guangdong Modern Dance Company elaborates, "Crane and food are symbolic in this show. Crane represents longevity, an auspicious symbol of elegance. Food is an important part in Chinese culture. Crane implies human being in this piece, which is also an object. Whether this object is a chicken (that walks on the ground) or a crane (that flies in the sky), is entirely within one’s discretion... On the other hand, a performance is like a dish served by choreographer to audience. If the viewers feel unpleasant because of the unpolished or direct expression in the choreography, it is similar to a person who refused to eat before taking a bite. In this case, it will be unable to communicate with the choreographer."
Rehearsals for Salty Roast Crane were very organic and involved a lot of input from the performers. "During the rehearsal, I made special requests to the dancer, for example making abnormal moves... (to) fall down by holding your body tight, or imagine your partner as an object and try to move him/her. We always started from these abnormal movement and postures in rehearsals," says Gao. "The creativity process was a game, we found true and interesting moments in improvisation. When the ideas became solid, dancers would return to their technical and mechanical rehearsal. The creative process focused on presence and the feeling in improvisation."
Gao also had an amazing technical and design team working with him on the project. "I love to work with new dancers and new crew. In an unchanged environment, we often have uncertainties. We are seeking for ego, identity and anatta (selflessness). Everyone has different interpretation. During the creative process, we talked a lot, everybody spoke truthfully from their hearts. I was longing for this kind of communication," he says. Well known independent musician, Liang Yiyuan has created original music for this piece and light and visual design for this production is by award winning designer, Low Shee Hoe.
Salty Roast Crane is playing on December 12th at the Kwai Tsing Theatre. Tickets for this production are between 140HKD and 250HKD, with discounts for students, seniors and persons with disabilities. You can buy tickets through URBTIX or your nearest Tom Lee Outlet. For more information about the City Contemporary Dance Festival, visit CCDC's website. You can also check it this promotional video about the festival.
The City Contemporary Dance Festival is playing at Kwai Tsing Theatre through December 14th. For more information, click here.
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