By Carla Escoda, 13 March 2015
There appeared to be no dancers onstage in the Hong Kong Arts Festival’s Contemporary Dance Series Programme 1. The evening comprised two works – the first populated by an arctic seabird, the second by a six-man tech crew.
Wayson Poon in Fleeing by Night
© Keith Hiro
Then there was the little battery-operated donkey.
Launched in 2012 with the support of the city’s leading philanthropic organization, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, this series offers a platform for emerging choreographers, who present their work at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Studio Theatre. For one week a year, this 300-seater black box may well be the hottest venue for experimental dance in the region.
Clad in a starkly chic ensemble of white trousers and layered jacket, Wayson Poon opened the evening with Fleeing By Night². Programme notes refer to a scene from The Tale of the Sword, a famous Chinese opera. In this scene, Lin Chong, head of the imperial guards, who had been persecuted by a rival and exiled, escapes to a rebel hide-out in Liangshan Mountain.
The piece opens with Poon frozen in a twisted backbend on the glacial surface of a tightly stretched white fabric, while superb lighting effects and the bleak environmental sounds of Ólafur Arnalds rain down on him like a winter storm. Gripped by fear, he explores the alien territory, with movement vocabulary that evokes Beijing opera techniques, like flowing “sleeve skills,” as well as a range of skittish contemporary moves that give his wiry, angular frame the appearance of some kind of snowy white shorebird or arthropod.
There is a lot of business with layers of fabric that cover the floor, one of which is winched up to form a backdrop for abstract video projections by artist Vvzela Kook. These summon up a volcanic eruption, ice formations, and other wintry artifacts of nature. They also recall the work of the Korean monochrome painters currently on display at Art Central Hong Kong – in particular, Chung Sang-hwa’s serenely hypnotic, painstakingly crafted canvasses, which glisten with multiple textures and sheens.
Fleeing By Night² simply trails off, however, and the anguished eloquence of Poon’s movement failed to move me. The lack of dramatic arc and the unvarying quality of torment in the movement made this half-hour rather heavy going.