HK Cultural Centre Studio Theatre
March 15, 3pm and 8.15pm

This is the third year in a row that the Hong Kong Arts Festival has presented two programmes of new contemporary dance by local artists, sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Without doubt a valuable opportunity to nurture Hong Kong's choreographers, it must be said the overall results have been mixed in quality. This year's crop had good moments, but the choice of work was disappointing - five pieces were on offer, of which one was included in both programmes and two were almost identical in theme.

The series also underline the lack of variety that plagues so much Hong Kong contemporary dance. The vocabulary of movement is too limited and too often the same - is there ever a piece where no-one falls down on their back and waves their legs in the air?

The juxtaposition of a solo or duet front stage while another dancer moves slowly along the backcloth is fine in itself, but not when it features in piece after piece. There is an increasing trend to use dialogue instead of movement to express ideas - dance should be able to do without this.

And why, oh why, are there always chairs?

The most satisfying of the five pieces on show was Ivanhoe Lam Chun-ho's . Three dancers dressed in white - two male and one female - compete for possession of a bottle of water and a glass, around which a succession of solos, duets and trios lead into one another. This ongoing struggle is observed and occasionally interrupted by an elegantly dressed Chinese opera artist (Geng Tianyuan) who sings and, in one charmingly whimsical section, brandishes a furled white umbrella like a traditional operatic sword.

There is a strong duo for the two male dancers and a wittily choreographed fight over the water between girl and boy. The work has strong visual effects - stunning lighting projects the performers' silhouettes like shadow puppets while the all-white costumes lend a dreamlike quality.

Lively and entertaining, this is a well-crafted piece with good performances by the three dancers (Lim Wei-wei, Liu Heung-man and Bruce Liu) as well as the benignly authoritative Geng. Lam gets extra marks for using a chair only once, when Geng sits on it at the end to drink a cup of tea.

Two choreographers produced duets that explored the difficulties of communication between man and woman. Huang Lei's was also danced by him, with Gigi Yang making a welcome return to the stage after maternity leave. The piece consists mostly of solos - the final section when the two dance together is the strongest, with some complex doublework.

The choreography is too busy and again a chair plays a prominent role. However, the relationship between the protagonists is intriguing and the brief moments of tenderness when they manage to communicate are touching.

Xing Liang's was aimed more at the intellect than the emotions. Xing is by far the most experienced of the five choreographers and the piece is smooth and assured, but uninspired. The choreography featured the convoluted, spiky yet flowing arm movements characteristic of Xing's work, along with some complicated lifts.

There was a lot of standing on chairs, and two more chairs were suspended upside down above the stage for good measure. Although there were good moments there was little structure - basically the work meandered on until it stopped.

A disappointment from a choreographer of Xing's ability.

Also disappointing was , a solo piece by Yang Hao, a promising young choreographer who was involved in some of the best work in the two previous Jockey Club seasons. Sadly, Yang seemed out of his depth here - his performance was heartfelt but ideas were lacking and the whole effect disjointed. The appearance of a man in a plaid shirt who sits down (on a chair… ) and proceeds to read a short text in Cantonese over and over while Yang dances did nothing to improve matters.

Chloe Wong's was an attempt to explore the climate of political angst in Hong Kong. There was too much dialogue and weak choreography. The projected image of a fish swimming round and round a small bowl of water while the dancers ran around the stage was presumably meant to symbolise Hong Kong's plight.

A clever effect, this was the best thing about the piece, although the fact that it was a real fish made it not for the squeamish. At least there weren't any chairs.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: New pieces good in parts but please spare the chairs

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