Press Release

For immediate release (3 pages in total)

Convergence: A Dialogue in Dance between Hong Kong and Singapore

A Real-time Performance Connecting Two Cities

Convergence: A Dialogue in Dance between Hong Kong and Singapore was presented at the historic National Museum of Singapore on 30 July 2022, with a virtual dialogue via 5G technology between Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) and Singapore’s Maya Dance Theatre (MDT). The performance was of HKDC with Singapore’s professional dance company, Maya Dance Theatre, wfrom Convergence, a three-year “Research Study on Chinese martial arts and Chinese dance” by HKDC. Mentored by HKDC's Artistic Director Yang Yuntao via online workshops, the Singaporean dancers have explored southern Chinese martial arts and its quintessential rhythmic patterns of the body. They have brought in elements of Bharathanatyam, a classical Indian dance, and traditional Javanese dance, and created an exceptional contemporary dance theatre work together with HKDC.

The programme is supported by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Singapore as part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, showcasing Hong Kong as a centre for cultural and artistic exchange between China and overseas.

The Research Study on Chinese Martial Arts and Chinese Dance/ Convergence

The research study explored new dance forms and new directions for traditional Chinese dance training. The research team included HKDC’s Artistic Director Yang Yuntao, as well as dancers, kung fu masters, academic researchers and experts in the field. Over the course of three years from 2018-2020, the artists explored the essence of both traditional practices, extracting new perspectives on movement and the fluidity of expression between ideology and physical gesture, seeking to construct a richer texture of dance. Convergence – a performance that was staged in 2020 to mark the culmination of the inter-disciplinary research study, captured the transient state between stillness and motion between dance and martial arts. 

Watch Convergence: A Dialogue in Dance between Hong Kong and Singapore：

https://fb.watch/eDluqIGwC5/

Hong Kong Dance Company

Established in 1981, the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) was incorporated in 2001 as a charitable and non-profit-making institution, and is financially supported by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. As one of Hong Kong’s nine flagship performing arts companies, our mission is to promote Chinese dance with contemporary artistic visions and Hong Kong character. Since its inception, the Company has staged over 200 productions over the decades, many of which were highly popular with critical acclaim. Recent productions include The Legend of Mulan, Red Poppies, Spring Ritual·Eulogy, The Butterfly Lovers, Storm Clouds, L’Amour Immortel, Dream of the Past: Ancient Chinese Court Dances, Reveries of the Red Chamber, Chinese Hero: A Lone Exile, Vipassana, Lady White of West Lake, Tale of Three Cities, Waiting Heart, Liu Sanjie, Ode to the Silk Road, Dance of Strings, A Tale of the Southern Sky, Mazu the Sea Goddess, The Moon Opera, Shan Shui: An Ode to Nature, Nine Songs, Nezha: Untold Solitude, as well as Convergence, a culminating work created through a three-year interdisciplinary research study on Chinese dance and Chinese martial arts traditions.

As a cultural ambassador of Hong Kong, we constantly bring our city's unique artistic style to the world by touring to different cities across the globe, engaging local audiences and encouraging cultural exchange. In recent years, we have toured to New York, Washington D.C., Toronto, Sydney, London, Minsk, Seoul, Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei, Shanghai, Hangzhou, among others.

Maya Dance Theatre

Founded in 2007, Maya Dance Theatre (MDT) is a non-profit professional dance theatre company that has carved out a niche for itself in the Singapore dance scene by creating works with social consciousness. Pivoted on a social theme, MDT’s three main tenets are collaborations, expounding social issues and engaging with communities to share social stories. Receiving SEED Grant from National Arts Council, Singapore (NAC) from 2012-2015, MDT is recognised as a Citizen Ambassador of Singapore International Foundation (SIF) for promoting Arts for Good. In 2018, it formed DADC (Diverse Abilities Dance Collective), an art making space where individuals with disability co-exist with professionals, inspiring each other and experimenting together. Its contemporary dance expression stems from Asian dance traditions and philosophy, primarily Bharathanatayam (Indian Classical Dance).