This workshop will guide the participants to explore and discuss the special qualities of modern dance and contemporary dance through specially designed interactive sessions and watching dance performance video clips. Choreography seems very simple but it’s really intriguing: it often starts with the creator’s penchants, which go on to mould the aesthetic perceptions unique to the person. But penchants are subject to a person’s education, personal experience, trends that change with the times. Modern dance and contemporary dance is interesting because it can be anything and covers everything. In this workshop, we will attempt to decode dance from its primary source – creating. Simple it may seem, it is a process that allows us to see how a choreographer selects, trims and pares down ideas and turns them into visible movements for the audience to see. With the interactive sessions and video screenings, plus discussing with guest choreographers the ideas and concepts behind the choreographic process, we will have a better understanding of the deployment of choreographic elements on the one hand, and be prepared to see the dance show that follows with enlightened eyes. We will be able to analyse the techniques involved while watching the dance, and find how the work relates to us on a personal level.


Session 1: ‘New Force in Motion’ Series: Lördagsgodis by Gabbie Chan and Moha by Jennifer Mok (19.9.2018)
Guest speakers: Gabbie Chan and Jennifer Mok

What would sugar-coated memories be like? Would it be sweet, sour, chili hot, or bitter? And who can rightly ascertain that the contents of one’s memories are real? Choreographer Gabbie Chan delivers imaginings of sugar-coated memories by using the Swedish tradition of ‘Lördagsgodis’ (the Saturday Sweet Stampede) as theme. Another choreographer, Jennifer Mok, probes the subject of ‘Moha’ – a Buddhist concept in Sanskrit – and shows how she understands the delusion and ignorance therein by unravelling different kinds of entangled emotions on stage.


Session 2: Tree of Codes by Wayne McGregor (UK), Jamie xx (UK) and Olafur Eliasson (Iceland/Denmark) (26.9.2018)

In this production titled after Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes, choreographer Wayne McGregor engages the collaboration of musician Jamie XX and visual artist Olafur Eliasson. Let us appreciate from multiple perspectives how the choreographer blends the art of body movement with texts, visual art and music elements to fill up the space and time lasting 75 minutes.


Session 3: ‘Dance On’ Series: Untitled III by Wayson Poon (3.10.2018)
Guest speaker: Wayson Poon

To choreographer Wayson Poon, living and artistic creation cannot proceed apart from each other; it is the acceptance of the fact that life is full of ups and downs and uncertainties. To correlate with the organic nature of living, internalised cognitions can be brought into play in the creative process. Perhaps dance is a way to respond to living, or perhaps living is dance. The 'Untitled' series came into being in the summer of 2010, when the choreographer was working together with the painter, Liu Wentao, in the latter’s studio in Beijing. Now after the two’s shared experiences in everyday life for eight years, how would Untitled III relate to the tidbits in life as a whole?


Session 4: Negotiation by Olé Khamchanla (France/Laos) & Pichet Klunchun (Thailand) (25.10.2018)

Tradition and modernism. Are they pitched against each other, collaborative, or complementary? In this performance, two dance masters are bringing to us a modern work entitled Negotiation. One is Pichet Klunchun, Khon master from Thailand, and the other, Olé Khamchanla, a hip-hop dancer native to Laos and now in France. It would be interesting to see what sparks will come about between the two, and how they balance the subtle relationship between tradition and modernism.


Session 5: Swan Lake / Loch na hEala by Teaċ Daṁsa (Ireland) (1.11.2018)

No graceful swans. No mellifluous music of Tchaikovsky. This reconstructed version of Swan Lake by choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan has been injected a new meaning. What will he do to elevate further a sad, moving yet poetic traditional work? To what lengths will the bizarre go? And how will it find resonance among the audience of today?


Session 6: When I Grow Up by Victor Fung (8.11.2018)
Guest speaker: Victor Fung

‘When we were young’ can be our collective memory, or a long-forgotten story, or even a flashback... No matter what your story is about growing up, the choreographer will take us on a time tunnel shuttle and circle round the theatre, whispering the story of growing up.


Session 7: Siu Lung Fung Dance Theater (15.11.2018)
Guest speaker: Cyrus Hui

One returns after a tortuous journey out there. At times, something very near can appear very far away. When man and woman look for one another, are they going after the tenderness of the moment, or a vow for eternity? The choreographer will probe the meaning of ‘family’ via dance theatre.