Mindful Theatre's VIPASSANA Unveils Illustrious Lineup

Following the success of Vipassana's pre-show workshops, rehearsals are now in full swing with HKDC Artistic Director Yang Yuntao, scenographer Tsang Man-tung, and composer Law Wing-fai. Vipassana consists of three parts, each a personal account of the artist's life experience. Earlier this month, HKDC dancers headed out to Ng Tong Chai to practice in nature, tuning into their five senses as a form of mindfulness.

The Hong Kong Dance Company is presenting Vipassana at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre from 8 to 10 September 2017.

In the beginning

Yang Yuntao

Dance is a secular ceremony.

In the midst of joyous chanting,

Dancers channel their energy through fluid movements,

Unleashing their natural instincts.

Awareness of the world and the self,

Awakens the dormant conscience.

The simplicity of being,

Through the observation of emptiness;

Unravelling life's depths,

An unbiased perception,

Its internal turmoil laid bare.

The cessation of perception, attained.

Knowing thyself is the beginning of all.

Silent Walk

Tsang Man-tung

Sadhana, the realisation of life

"Mountain", "Ocean", "Enactment", "Adversity"

Floating between innate movements

They represent the cycle of observation, clarity and cessation

Immerse yourself in the sounds of the singing bowls

Elevated by the gong, pipa, ruan and drums

Composing a poetic, visual narrative

And enter a state of transcendence

Wuji Soundscapes

Law Wing-fai

The laws of the universe are simple, yet utterly unpredictable.

Awareness of the world and introspection of our changing nature are balanced through mindfulness, and create a sanctuary from worldly distractions.

Reality is nothing but a reflection of your conscious observation.

Focus your mind and flow into the zone. Filled with the exquisite sounds of the guzheng, erhu and pipa that vividly illustrate the spirit of the poems Fading Moon, Hollow Mountain and Flow.

Winner of two Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2003 and 2006 for his outstanding dance performance, and awarded Best Artist (Dance) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2009, Yang Yuntao is an accomplished dancer and choreographer. He joined the Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDC) in 2002 as Principal Dancer. He was the company's Assistant Artistic Director from 2007 and has been its Artistic Director since November 2013. He has choreographed for various dance companies. His award-winning choreography for Hong Kong Dance Company includes: Spring Ritual·Eulogy, winner of Outstanding Achievement in Production at the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2013; The Legend of Mulan, winner of Outstanding Production and Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the 2014 Hong Kong Dance Awards; Storm Clouds, winner of three awards including Outstanding Achievement in Production at the 2015 Hong Kong Dance Awards; L'Amour Immortel, winner of three awards at the 2016 Hong Kong Dance Awards; and Reveries of the Red Chamber, winner of Outstanding Medium Venue Production at the 2017 Hong Kong Dance Awards. His other works for the Hong Kong Dance Company include The Butterfly Lovers, Border Town, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Voices and Dances of the Distant Land, Blanc in Reveries of the Red Chamber and Chinese Hero: A Lone Exile.

Tsang Man-tung

Set and Costume Designer

Director/ Singing Bowls/ Gong in Silent Walk

A graduate of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a Bachelor's (Honours) Degree, Tsang Man-tung was a special research fellow at the Yale School of Drama in 2010/11. Renowned for his conceptual and minimalist style, his ritual theatre works include The Heart Sutra and Luz de Silencio.

Tsang has received numerous awards, including Best Set Design, Best Costume Design and Best Make-up and Image Design at the Hong Kong Drama Awards; and Award for Young Artist (2003) and Award for Best Artist (Theatre) (2007/08) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards. In 2009, he received an honourable mention for Set Design at the World Stage Design and a Huang He Fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council. Tsang was a three-time winner at the Hong Kong Dance Award for Outstanding Set Design for Dance (2012, 2016 & 2017). In addition, he was among the awardees in the "Secretary for Home Affairs' Commendation Scheme" in 2015 for his contribution to the development of arts and culture. He received the Silver prize for Set Design at the World Stage Design 2017 for his work Storm Clouds in July this year.

In 2011 and 2015, Tsang was invited to hold his unique workshops-White Paper Workshop and ScenoZen-at the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space. He presented the Disjunctive-coding exhibition in 2002 and published his first book on Hong Kong Contemporary Stage design entitled Scenography: Transcend to the Beyond in 2007. He is also the author of Let's grow up, a book on theatre education. Tsang is presently an examiner (Drama) of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and a panel member of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department Performing Arts Committee.

An accomplished musician, Tsang is an expert on meditation through Himalayan singing bowls, having performed many times around the world.

Law Wing-fai

Director/ Music Composer of Wuji Soundscapes

Founder and current Artistic Director of Wuji Ensemble, Law Wing-fai is a leading composer in Hong Kong, and one of the few to have crossed the boundary between commercial music and the arts. He was the Composer-in-Residence at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and founding Head of Composition of the Academy. Law graduated from the University of California with a Master's degree in Music (Composition and Electronic Music). In the 1980s he worked closely with Hong Kong's New Wave film directors to produce scores for, among others, the award-winning movies Boat People, Dream Lovers and A Simple Life. In 1995, as a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, he presented lectures and composed music. On returning to Hong Kong, he presented many works combining Chinese and Western instrumentation, including When Mountains Roar and Linli. His works were featured in a critically acclaimed concert by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra in May 2008.

Law has also written for pop music, commercials, drama, opera and dance dramas such as CCDC's Song of the Good Earth and HKDC's Rouge. His numerous awards include the Irino Memorial Award at the Asian Composers' League, the Hong Kong Film Award for "Best Original Score" and "Composer of the Year" by the Hong Kong Artists' Guild. Law's score for the drama production The Peach Blossom Fan was awarded "Best Original Music" by the Hong Kong Federation of Drama Societies. Law is also a five-time winner of the CASH Golden Sail Music Award between 2001 and 2008, with his opera Dreaming Plum Blossoms Away, Flowing Fancies for pipa and Western orchestra, Feng Liu for Chinese plucked strings, A Thousand Sweeps for pipa and Chinese orchestra, and Flowing Phantasm for Chinese orchestra. In 2013, he was awarded the Xinyi Cup granted by the Chinese Nationalities Orchestra Society in Beijing for his pipa concerto A Thousand Sweeps. In 2014, his atmospheric music theatre When Petals Fall in Serenity premiered to rave reviews.

Meet the Artists

9-10 September (Sat & Sun) 3pm

To be held after the performance

Hong Kong Dance Company

"Dancing across East and West, Moving to the Tempo of Hong Kong"

Mission Statement

We are nurtured in the cultural tradition of China, combining with the creativity of contemporary art, to impress the world with Chinese dance of Hong Kong character.

History

Established in 1981 with the aim of promoting Chinese dance, the Hong Kong Dance Company 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.

Since its inception, the Hong Kong Dance Company has staged over 100 productions, many of which were highly popular with critical acclaim. ReceNT Productions include Qingming Riverside, Snow Fox, Two Swallows - Ode to Wu Guanzhong, Spring Ritual×Eulogy, Pop Classics: Joseph Koo's Dance Melodies 2013, The Legend of Mulan, The Butterfly Lovers, Storm Clouds, L'Amour Immortel, Reveries of the Red Chamber, Chinese Hero: A Lone Exile and Kaleidoscope of Dance from Yunnan.

The Company has toured internationally as well as around Mainland China as a way to encourage cultural exchange. The Company was invited to perform at the "Meet in Beijing 2008" Arts Festival to celebrate the Beijing Olympics, and took part in the opening ceremony of the East Asian Games in 2009. In 2010, the Company participated in "The Ninth China Art Festival" in Guangzhou and the World Expo in Shanghai. In January 2013, the Hong Kong Dance Company presented Qingming Riverside at The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Spring Ritual×Eulogy was presented at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing in September 2013, and the Novel Hall for Performing Arts in Taipei in December 2013 as part of Hong Kong Week 2013. The Butterfly Lovers was showcased at the Korea Dance Festival in April 2016. The Legend of Mulan was presented at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York in March 2015 and in Sydney in September 2015. The show made its premiere at the Southbank Centre in London in April 2017, and at Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center and Guangzhou Opera House in July.

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