We have been finding our way forward, progressing step by step, as we planned the current edition of the dance festival in the past year. I keep asking what is the mission and vision of Freespace Dance. I think there are the following five aspects of the 2024 edition:

1. Introduce Outstanding Overseas Works
Sharing the latest international trends in dance art and relevant issues with Hong Kong audiences, allowing them to understand the creative methods of different artists and broaden their horizons.

2. Commission New Works
Focusing on commissioning local independent choreographers with diverse experiences and backgrounds, including a multimedia dance theatre performance at The Box by a seasoned choreographer (Daniel Yeung); a cultural exchange between two mid-career dance groups from Hong Kong and Japan (TS Crew x contact Gonzo), engaging in a two-year research and development process (residency and showcase in 2024 and world premiere in 2025); and a showcase that experiments on dance and technology by an emerging choreographer (Zelia ZZ Tan).

3. Research and Development
The FIRST Creation Platform marks the first step in artistic incubation. We received numerous submissions through an open call for proposals this year. However, due to limited resources, only four units were selected to present their new conceptual works. This platform is open to dance creatives of all experience levels. As long as it is their first offering of a creative idea, they are eligible to participate. It allows artists to focus on research without limitations on format and the pressure to produce. Through this platform, we aim to discover promising works for potential support and development in the future.

4. Exchange and Networking
Starting this year, we have invited international curators, producers and institutional leaders to see performances by Hong Kong artists. This initiative allows them to understand the perspectives of local artists and enhance their visibility. Additionally, the new project "Artist Journey" by the Asia Network for Dance (AND+) supports young Asian artists in experiencing various Asian dance festivals or participating in relevant residencies, helping them build networks with local artists, curators and producers. As a member of AND+, WestK is initiating its involvement through Freespace Dance. These collective efforts lay the groundwork for future international collaborations and interdisciplinary creations.

5. Learn and Discuss
This year, alongside artist-led workshops, we have invited students and teachers from the Dramaturgy major at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts to see the productions as case studies for discussions on dance dramaturgy. Public lectures will also include dramaturgs from the productions, providing them with a platform to share their artistic processes and enrich learning and discussions.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of Freespace. In line with this milestone, the current edition of Freespace Dance focuses on the themes of time and space, exploring how dance artists respond to and reinvestigate these two fundamental elements intricately connected to the art of dance. Through extended readings and artist interviews, audiences can gain a deeper understanding of the temporal and spatial dimensions woven into each work.

Hope you can continue to support Freespace Dance so that we can imagine multiple futures from this time and era, space and history.

Anna Cheng
Senior Producer, Performing Arts (Dance)
West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Renowned contemporary director Peter Brook introduced a significant theatrical concept in his book The Empty Space: I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.¹

Greek director Dimitris Papaioannou's INSIDE exemplifies such an act of theatre​. The original production took place in 2011 at the Pallas Theatre in the heart of Athens, where the proscenium stage was transformed into a square, minimalist living area. The interior furnishings consisted of only a bed, a table, a chair and an open bathroom revealing the actors' activities. In the middle was a sizable terrace, offering a view of the passage of time through external sights, like clothes fluttering on the opposite building and birds soaring in the sky. Over six hours, thirty actors moved in and out of this space under the audience's gaze, their actions sometimes repeated, sometimes overlapping, creating a shifting tapestry of everyday life.

During the performances in Greece, the show ran continuously from 5:30pm to 11:30pm every day. There was no assigned seating, and audience members were free to come and go as they pleased. The act of theatre​ had already begun before the audience entered, and the ripples it caused continued even after they departed.

Presented at Freespace Dance 2024, INSIDE is an uncut six-hour video recording that places the concept of visual art in the theatre. The stage is transformed into an exhibition gallery, where the performance transforms into an art installation and the audience becomes visitors, admiring the work before them like viewing a landscape painting. Connected by the terrace, the everyday indoor scenes harmonise with the changing outdoor panorama, transitioning from day to night. Mirroring the visual arts perspective, the vista expands from the horizontal street views to the nooks of the community and the surrounding mountains. When the outdoor scene shifts to reveal a clear blue sky, the audience follows the actors' viewpoints and appears to hover mid-air – sometimes peering down from a height, sometimes gazing into the vastness.

The entire piece lacks a strong narrative arc; instead, it seamlessly transitions from the opening to the closing of the performance. Actors enter and exit repeatedly, executing repetitive movements with tightly choreographed body language, blending individual and group movements and capturing moments frozen in time. Here, people from different times and spaces intersect. Despite the absence of direct interaction or connection, they leave behind traces of existence. The physical performance space stretches and expands, transcending the confines of the four walls and the constraints of time, freeing itself from the limitations of the stage. Furthermore, the director's personally filmed and edited backstage documentary BACKSIDE is presented alongside, unveiling the creative process and the behind-the-scenes activities, giving an additional contextual dimension.

As for the Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung's Freespace Dance- exhibitionist, it elevates the three-dimensional scenery of the "empty space", suspending it in mid-air and making full use of a performance space within The Box that has seldom been explored. Audience members have the freedom to sit, recline or position themselves anywhere in between while gazing upwards, as though observing the movement of celestial bodies and seeking guidance. The projections on the two sides further expand the physical space, leading the audience through time and space akin to a temporal tunnel, establishing a dialogue with his earlier solo dance series, Dance / Dan’s Exhibitionist.

Much like a pendulum, the suspended swing hints at the passage of time, reflecting the transient nature of live performance. Only the audience can truly savour the lingering essence of the performance. Yeung employs cutting-edge new media art to revisit a piece created over twenty years ago, engaging with his former self across the dimensions of time and fostering an extended dialogue. Impacted by recent injuries, Yeung departs from the familiar flat ground to rediscover his body in mid-air, allowing time and space to heal and cleanse his wounds. This site-specific dramaturgy at The Box transcends temporal and spatial boundaries, showcasing the potential of a performance within the realms of time and space.

In Europe, the highly acclaimed Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger is re-examining the expression of time and space within traditional ballet, specifically their significance in contemporary dance. Onstage, an elderly ballet dancer assumes the role of mentor, guiding young dancers in the art of ballet. Throughout the process, frequently use double entendres, placing classical ballet in a contemporary context. This approach challenges our conventional perceptions of time and space in performance, prompting a reevaluation of ballet training traditions through a contemporary visual perspective.

In the first lesson, titled “How to Govern Your Body”, the instructor starts by guiding young dancers through a sequence of movements. Phrases such as "pushing the air as if it were an endless stream of life” and “we always look for a space...eventually we will be ending up in the other space" foreshadow the upcoming boundary-crossing development. During the lesson, she repeatedly expresses feeling overheated, causing discomfort. She then instructs the dancers to remove their clothing. As they follow her dance instructions, she passionately remarks that the young dancers are very hot, delving into the concept of governing one’s body to please others. Additionally, she notes how dancers often hide themselves behind the barres, invoking the contemporary interpretation of being "behind the bars".

The second half of the performance unfolds with the traditional narrative of romantic ballet, opening up a forest inhabited by various ethereal spirits. A series of unexpected scenes breaches the fourth wall between the audience and performer. Filled with dramatic twists and even violent scenes, the once monotonous romantic tale of a forest deity’s love affair has been expanded, not only stimulating the audience's senses and imagination but also directly confronting the harsh realities embedded in ballet fairy tales. "If she can dance the dance of death, she will become a bird." Holzinger’s work displays the boldness of a new generation of choreographers who are re-examining established conventions.

In Mali Bucha: Dance Offering, the emerging Thai choreographer Kornkarn Rungsawang re-examines the meaning of relational art: "At times, it is unclear 'who' is the 'audience' and 'who' is the 'creator.' By focusing on the socio- cultural context and the interconnections among individuals, these intangible 'mediums' serve as tools for practitioners in the creative process, exploring the relationship between everyday life and artistic expression." ²

In a promotional video for the performance in Singapore, Rungsawang mentions her need for a spiritual anchor. The traditional Thai ritual, Ram kea bon, served as the inspiration and spiritual grounding for her work. The dancer acts as the intermediary between mortals and deities, as well as the link between physical and virtual spaces. Physical religious structures have always functioned as sites where believers assemble for religious rites. The presence of a community bolsters faith, fosters collective participation and provides spiritual comfort. Typically, the object of worship comes in the form of a sculpture, statue or painting. Mali Bucha: Dance Offering reconstructs a sacred space for ritualistic worship, bringing together the audience and their offerings in a virtual realm, seeking divine blessings amidst the chiming of bells.

As this work transcends the boundaries between physical and virtual spaces, it is easy to envision audiences from around the world coming together in the digital realm to engage in worship and prayer. Synchronicity and empathy are no longer confined by geographical constraints.

The physical expressions in the dance embody a traditional ritual, with its prayers deeply intertwined with contemporary existence. By incorporating traditional ritual practices – an intangible medium familiar to the audience – into a social framework, a participatory relational art piece is formed. Spectators witness fellow audience members entering a shared virtual sphere of worship, where time knows no bounds in the digital domain. The conventional cycle of day and night, along with the progression of events, fade into insignificance, leaving behind the wishes of the audience as offerings.

Four dance pieces from different dimensions once again traverse the "empty space" under the audience’s watchful gaze, re-examining and challenging established theatrical acts, dance languages, temporal dimensions and spatial configurations. Let us declare to the future, "Do not approach me, for I am coming towards you."

¹The Empty Space by Peter Brook.

²Tung Wei-Hsiu, ‘De-deification of Contemporary Art – Examining Audience Participation and Dialogue in Contemporary Art from the Perspective of Relational Aesthetics’, Art Accrediting, no. 67, 2016, p. 48.