Hong Kong Dance Company will premiere Voyage of the Eight Graces, a new interdisciplinary work inspired by eight traditional Chinese cultural pursuits, at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts next month. The production marks the company’s first cross-regional, cross-disciplinary collaboration with Singapore’s The TENG Company.
Presented by HKDance and co-produced with The TENG Company, the work combines dance, theater and live music to explore eight cultural motifs: zither music, weiqi, also known as Go, calligraphy, painting, poetry, incense, flowers and tea. Drawing on a contemporary variation of the traditional Chinese literati arts, it considers how cultural inheritance can be reimagined for present-day audiences through an immersive, cross-cultural theatrical experience.
The narrative centers on Ah Ya, a traveler played by HKDance principal dancer Huang Wenjie. Her diary entries and journeys through different cities form a series of vignettes, guiding the audience through ideas of harmony between humanity and nature, mindfulness and inner balance.
Huang Lei, who conceived and choreographed the production, describes its stage world as one of “flowing imagery.” In the “Flowers” sequence, dancers in sweeping skirts evoke petals and changing seasons, expressing his view of tradition as a living, evolving force.
The TENG Ensemble will perform the score live, with pipa, erhu, sheng and guzheng joined by cello, keyboard and guitar. Dr Samuel Wong, the Singapore company’s concept and creative director for music, says the work uses exchanges between Eastern and Western instruments to translate the values contained in the Eight Graces into a contemporary musical vocabulary.
Sustainability is another strand of the production. Working with the academy as a green theater research partner, the creative team has applied Theatre Green Book principles to its design and production processes. Costume designer Lin Ching-ju has reworked fabrics used in HKDance’s 2002 production The Song of the Earth, while set designer Wong Yat-kwan has devised a modular touring set using sustainable timber where possible.
Voyage of the Eight Graces runs from October 8 to 10 at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Amphitheatre, HKAPA. It will then travel to Shenzhen’s Bay Opera on October 16 and 17 as part of the Shenzhen “Belt and Road” International Music Festival.
Bernard Charnwut Chan is the chairman of the West Kowloon Cultural District.
