Hong Kong Ballet and top British choreographer break new ground in Venice
Hong Kong Ballet and Company Wayne McGregor joined forces for a spectacular marriage of dance and tech at the Biennale Danza in Venice
On June 24, at the Biennale Danza in Venice, Italy, a new work was unveiled by acclaimed British choreographer Sir Wayne McGregor who, as it happens, is also the artistic director of the international contemporary dance festival.
His piece is called On the Other Earth. No dancers were physically present. It takes place within a cylinder, four metres (13 feet) high with an eight-metre diameter, encircled by the world’s first 360-degree stereoscopic LED cinematic screen.
The immersive installation space was created by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) professors Jeffrey Shaw, director of its Visualisation Research Centre, and Sarah Kenderdine, visiting professor in the department of computer science.
The matchmaker for this otherworldly marriage between dance and technology was Septime Webre, artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet, the city’s flagship ballet company with the motto “Never Standing Still”.
In 2023, Shaw suggested to Webre that they submit a joint application for a tech-ballet research grant from Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Commission, and the original proposal was written with Webre in mind as choreographer.