City Contemporary Dance Company presents the double bill Kylián and Sangba at 8pm on October 30 and 31 in The Hall at East Kowloon Cultural Centre. Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián’s Sleepless appears alongside artistic director Sang Jijia’s new a | ch, with tickets priced at HK$280, HK$360 and HK$450. Different stage languages give audiences a chance to compare how bodies express states of awareness that are difficult to explain directly.
Rehearsal of Sang Jijia’s new a | ch for CCDC.
How does Sleepless make the stage into a boundary?
Originally created for Nederlands Dans Theater’s NDT II, Sleepless premiered in 2004. Inspired by Lucio Fontana’s cut canvases, it brings a surface, its openings and the space beyond into the conception of the stage. Photographs of the original production show unstable relationships between dancers and vertical slits. Looking extends beyond the foreground towards an unseen other side.
Sleeplessness need not be followed as a complete plot. Alertness and drifting, approach and departure can be sensed through speed, pauses and distance. For someone less familiar with contemporary dance, begin by noticing when a body appears, disappears or is caught by another. Gradually observe how tension and humour are built, without requiring one definitive explanation for every movement.
What layers does Sang Jijia’s new work introduce?
a | ch combines light, music, projection and performers in different layers. In the associated interview, Sang Jijia discusses placing human sensations and emotions within multiple stage elements. These descriptions establish a creative direction. The work’s actual relationships are still built through bodies and time onstage; multimedia is more than a list of equipment.
Pairing the works also offers a comparison of viewing methods. If Sleepless draws attention to boundaries between openings and bodies, a | ch suggests that light, images and people can establish different pictures simultaneously. A classic and a new work need not be compared to choose a winner. They open the same question, how people sense space, through different methods.
What are the dates, venue and ticket arrangements?
Both performances are officially listed for 8pm in The Hall at East Kowloon Cultural Centre. The October 30 performance includes a post-show meeting with the artists. Tickets are available through art-mate, URBTIX and the other channels listed by the company. Price categories correspond to seating, and the starting time is distinct from entry time. Plan transport and ticket collection as well as remembering when the performance begins.
The double bill also closes the City Contemporary Dance Festival. The images here show NDT’s original production of Sleepless and a CCDC rehearsal of a | ch respectively. They should not be mistaken for photographs of the same already-completed Hong Kong performance. With the works’ origins distinguished from the current production, audiences can enter with a concrete question: how can a body between an opening, a layer of light and a passage of music change our understanding of the stage?
