THE EIGHTH FLOOR of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre is buzzing with sweaty industry. Selina Chau, a coryphee (lead dancer) with the Hong Kong Ballet, is reviewing Beautiful That Way, a 15-minute piece she choreographed. Her movements are sure and precise, with strong contemporary influences. Principal dancers Faye Leung and Nobuo Fujino mimic them with ease. Suddenly, Fujino throws in a playful leap. The trio break concentration, laugh and start over. Chau works with them for another half an hour, and then her floor time is up. Senior soloist Carlo Pacis takes over the studio to rehearse his own piece with another group of dancers.
This is the third set of workshops held by the Hong Kong Ballet, in which the dancers create their own pieces to be performed in front of an audience. This programme is a rarity in the world of ballet, where choreographers and artistic directors usually call the shots, and the dancers follow orders. But it could be crucial if Asia is to build up a future generation of directors, managers and choreographers, instead of hiring them from the west.
When the Hong Kong Ballet started the programme in 2002, it ended up with six original pieces by six dancers. Fujino went on to win the best choreography by a dancer at the Dancer's Awards, held by the Friends of Hong Kong Ballet.
What the dancers are working on now is Classics & Beyond. When it opens on Friday it will showcase seven new pieces, alongside excerpts from the likes of Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Don Quixote. The dancers' varied modern creations will provide a striking contrast. Eva Chan's Falling is based on a young woman's memories. Elvin Beh Chang-ching's Swing It! uses big band music. Harvy Santo's O-KRoss is described as 'humorous and randy'. Yuh Egami's KAGE is based on the Japanese word for 'shadow and reflection'.
The seven budding choreographers are all volunteers. 'I put up a list, and interested people signed up,' says Stephen Jefferies, who has been the Hong Kong Ballet's artistic director for the past nine seasons. 'We give them some guidelines, like it shouldn't be longer than 20 minutes. But otherwise, it's up to them. I'll look at the work in progress, more from a programming aspect to see which piece goes first. Each dancer is responsible for designing the set, managing the dancers, and maintaining a working atmosphere. They have to stage it and work with the wardrobe people. They're acquiring a set of different skills. It can be daunting.'
Senior soloist Pacis, originally from the Philippines, has experience in choreography. 'I went to a high school for the arts, and I had to choreograph when I was in school,' he says. 'The more you do it, the more fun it is. It's problem solving: how to get from point A to point B, which is a certain pose. Plus, when you choreograph professional dancers, they give back a lot. We feed off each other's energy.'
Dubbed Boom-Chi-Ka-Bling-Boom-Boom, Pacis' work uses classical music such as Bizet's Carmen and Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumble Bee, set to a percussion backdrop. It's a high-energy piece involving eight dancers, with classical movements set in jazzy combinations.
