Freespace Dance 2024:
FIRST Creation Platform:
Presentations by Independent Artists
(Wayson Poon with Kong Chan
and Chan Wai-lok with Larry Shuen)
24.11.2024
6:00pm
The Room, Freespace
WestK
- Please switch off your mobile phones and any other sound and light emitting devices before the performance.
- No eating and drinking in the venue. Unauthorised photography and audio or video recording are not allowed.
- The presenter reserves the right to make changes to the programme.
About FIRST Creation Platform
Independent local choreographers offer first looks at new creative ideas and share insight into their creation process
Launched in 2023, FIRST is an interactive artistic platform designed to encourage local choreographers to share new work-in-progress and practice-in-development ideas.
As a creation research and development platform, FIRST invites dance artists or artist groups to individually present and explore new concepts in any format. At the same time, the audience and industry peers can offer feedback and suggestions that support the future development of these ideas.
This year, the platform features work-in-progress presentations by TS Crew (Hong Kong) x contact Gonzo (Osaka) and Hong Kong artist Zelia ZZ Tan, as well as sharing sessions with local dance artists and their collaborators, including Scarlet Yu, Woo Yat-hei, Chan Wai-lok with Larry Shuen and Wayson Poon with Kong Chan.
Creative Concept
Can the body be a phenomenon or a landscape? If the body is characterised by objectification, dualism, rigidity and alienation, how can we understand feminine energy further by delving into its various expressions and representations? Lotus in Gold seeks to explore the "feminine energy" contained within the male body through dance, striving to re-establish a non-dual, fluid and present consciousness within the seemingly contrasting concept of yin-yang.
The creation is sparked by the curiosity of choreographer Wayson Poon and Naamyam singer-songwriter Kong Chan on the suppression of feminine energy. With the body as the main subject of the performance, the two artists take inspiration from traditional Chinese culture, specifically the characterisation and storyline of Pan Jinlian, a key female protagonist in the classic Ming-dynasty novel Jin Ping Mei. In the process, they explore new possibilities in creating a more fluid and diversified interpretation of the body for a contemporary context.
Lyrics of the song Jinlian (Lotus in Gold) in Naamyam:
One is strong and powerful, the other weak and delicate.
One rides a tiger, the other steps on golden lotuses.
One has a desolate home, straightforward and kind-hearted.
One has a prominent family name, chivalrous and charming.
Mismatched red threads, an unfavourable coupling.
Subjected to the whims of fate, love and hate intertwine.
Creative Team
Choreographer and Dancer:
- Wayson Poon
Naamyam Singer and Musician:
- Kong Chan
Companion:
- Jennifer Mok
About the Artists
Photo: Maximillian Cheng
Wayson Poon
Choreographer and Dancer
Wayson Poon is a Hong Kong-based contemporary dance artist who has lived and worked in Europe and Asia as a creator, performer and researcher. His unique practice, known as OnthewayDance, combines eastern and western spiritual methodologies, drawing on Taoist notions of qi and emphasising the connection between dancer and audience. Notable works include Fleeing by night, in,visible(cities);, Vortex, Moving a memory and PHONATE. His works have toured festivals in Denmark, Finland, Japan, Italy, China and the United Kingdom.
Poon was awarded the Hong Kong Arts Development Award for Young Artist (Dance) in 2016. He was a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship in 2019 to further develop his movement research. He received the Dr Tom Brown Memorial Scholarship and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship in 2022 for pursuing his Master’s degree at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Kong Chan
Naamyam Singer and Musician
Kong Chan learnt Cantonese opera accompaniment from his father at a young age. He graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, majoring in Cantonese opera accompaniment.
In 2012, he founded the group The Gong Strikes One that embraces various performance forms, such as concerts, storytelling concerts, theatre and improvisation. They create original works that preserve the musicality and theatricality of traditional Chinese theatre. Their recent projects include an online music library titled “Hong Kong Music Miniatures”; the interactive theatre piece To Learn to Walk; the research project “Between the Notes” on Yau Hok-chou’s Gongche notation; and the newly published Naamyam Audiobook.
Creative Concept
Seeing Sound and Listening to Movement
An experiment that breaks the boundaries of listening and seeing
The conventional notion is that musicians communicate music through sound (by listening) while dancers express it through movement (by seeing). Often, we overlook the physical gestures of musicians in isolation from the music, typically focusing solely on the music itself. However, the bodily movements of musicians during performances not only serves the practical function of creating music but also embody elements of choreography and theatricality that go beyond mere music execution. Given this premise, could a dancer’s movement be untethered from music and instead become the catalyst for generating sound or sonic imagination?
In this project, choreographer and performer Chan Wai-lok, along with composer, sound and media artist Larry Shuen, challenge conventional musician-dancer relationship and audio-visual interplay. By exchanging and intertwining their roles, these creators expand the performative dimensions, playfully exploring the connection and disconnection among sound, vision and the inner experience of musicality.
The metaphorical concepts of "stolen ears" and "muffled bell" act as conceptual devices to expand the audience's perception and interpretation of musical expression through the body and the visual realm. Through this interplay of sound and movement, Stolen Ears; Muffled Bell (working title) invites the audience on a journey of perceptual awakening, transforming the way we apprehend the musical impulse. In this work, in which the familiar turns unfamiliar and the ordinary is infused with newfound marvel, the artists reveal the hidden choreography of sound. This synaesthetic experience invites the audience to “see” music and “listen” to movement in new, embodied and multisensory ways.
About the Artists
Photo: Lee Wai-leung
Chan Wai-lok
Choreographer and Performer
Hong Kong-born choreographer and performer Chan Wai-lok obtained a degree in architecture from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and studied dance at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, Austria, and the Performing Arts Research and Training Studios, Belgium, where he was awarded scholarships from the Dance Network Association.
Chan’s recent works, Reverie (2022), Click (2021) and An Auction without Bass (2021), explore perspectives on performativity and choreography. In the Cloud (2022) provokes the audience’s imagination about body movement and performance. {POV [TWINK / COUPLE (ASIAN) / EXPERIMENTAL]} (2021) and its video version, POV, demonstrate the texture and connection between live and video performances.
In 2020, Chan established the independent art space ngau4 gat1 dei6, which explores the operation and sustainability of an art space in the local art scene, as well as resource sharing among artists.
Larry Shuen
Sound Artist and Performer
Larry Shuen is a Hong Kong composer, sound artist and media artist. He draws inspiration from classical music and his extensive training in music composition.
His works often originate from a profound engagement with listening, expanding into artistic practices of sound art, installations, media art and performance. Shuen collaborates with artists from various disciplines as a sound and interactive designer. As an educator, Shuen is dedicated to art initiatives and university teaching.
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