Jockey Club New Arts Power
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power, launched in 2017, is an annual Arts Festival presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council with the funding support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The Festival brings together established and emerging local artists to produce creative, approachable and engaging arts experiences for all. Over the past three years, 38 arts groups have participated in the Festival. Together they produced 72 live performances and a remarkable number of major exhibitions. Uniting art groups and various organisations from the social welfare, academic and commercial sectors, the festival held over 450 community and school events, reaching some 380,000 participants. JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power 2020 / 2021 will be held from September 2020, featuring a total of 9 selected programmes that include dance, theatre, music, xiqu, multimedia and visual arts exhibition, as well as presenting more than 100 community and school activities.
Table of Content About Unlock Dancing Plaza ............................................................................................. 2 About #danceless.............................................................................................................. 3 What is Dance? ................................................................................................................. 4 Games to Unlock Your Body: Let’s Dance Together ........................................................ 6 About Hands・Footprint・Sound #danceless Performance Series ............................. 11 Interview with Artist: Ong Yong Lock’s Rhythmic Movement and World of Dance .... 12 Online Resources ............................................................................................................ 15 (Note: The English version is translated from the Chinese version. In case of discrepancies between the two versions, the Chinese version shall prevail.)
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
Hands．Footprint．Sound · 1 ·
About Unlock Dancing Plaza Unlock Dancing Plaza is a promising contemporary dance company founded in 2002, with Ong Yong Lock as Artistic Director and Joseph Lee as Associate Artistic Director (since 2020). Unlock is committed to pursuing innovative breakthrough and theatrical liberation. These commitments are embodied and practised through its productions. The company focuses on reflecting dance on the basis of the individual. Through defining dance with the uniqueness of a body and being freed from the institutionalised aesthetics of dance, Unlock deeply believes, “Everyone can dance”. Curating cross-media, cross-regional, and experimental projects, Unlock Body Lab discovers and shows the possibilities of dance in various forms. #DANCELESS includes a series of creative works, performances and workshops that see public participation as the main way of artistic practice. It encourages and deepens the diverse imagination of dance, facilitates the exchange between artists and the public through experiencing dance together. Unlock is a three-time Hong Kong Dance Awards recipient and is highly recognised in the dance industry. Its representative works include Jump to Mars, Dance with me, Boy Story. Reborn, Wanderer, serial dance-theatre Walls 44, Chopin VS Ca, and etc. The company has been financially supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council since 2009. #danceless Public Participatory Project Facebook / Instagram: danceless.unlock
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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About #danceless #danceless, one of the significant researches of Unlock Dancing Plaza in recent year, originates from the curiosity about the meaning constructed by dance and action. #danceless sets aside all kinds of dance techniques and returns to the body itself, rediscovering the joy of moving body, enhancing participants’ self-understanding through the creative and expressive body, and exploring the connection between individual and society. To achieve these goals and to cultivate freedom and capacity for appreciating dance among the society, Unlock Dancing Plaza has launched a series of performances, workshops, dance festivals, and sundry public participatory projects. Bodynamics (for children aged 6 – 12) Drawing upon the indefinite creativity and the spontaneous, energetic nature of children as well as adopting the teaching model by dance education expert Chiyoe Matsumoto as its blueprints, Bodynamics incorporates sport and dance and allows children to taste the bliss and elation of rhythmic bodily movement. By co-devising short dance pieces with their dance teachers, children are encouraged to unleash their unlimited creativity. Body On Stage (for all ages) Body On Stage refers to a series of community connection workshops targeting at people without performing experiences. Utilising mundane objects in life, they learn to perceive the communication between their bodies and things. By making use of the unique feature of their bodies, participants transcend the limited notion of dance that hinges on techniques and enter the boundless world of this art form. Body in Time (for seniors aged 50 and above) In lively and effortless group dance workshops, the elders are encouraged to express themselves and organise their life events. As they share and communicate with dance artists, they transform their abundant life stories and experiences to excellent elements of creativity. Furthermore, there are demonstrations and public workshops that allow the elders to present themselves in their communities, thus consolidating the bonding among neighbourhood. Debunking the stereotype about old people, these activities remodel them as the subject of creativity with great potential.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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What is Dance? As a performing art form with long-lived history, dance may carry distinctive definition in each of us. Regardless of your identity – adults or kids and teachers or students – ask yourself the following question: What does “dance” mean to you? • • • • • • • • • • •
Folk or ballet? Jazz or Hip Hop? Chinese dance? Contemporary dance? When should one start practising dance? Are dance lessons required? Does the choreography need to be extraordinary? Is ineffable and fancy costume required? Is it necessary to tell a story? Does one need to be young and agile? Do I need dazzling music and spectacular settings? I can’t really appreciate dance performance?
Messages from Artistic Director Ong Yong Lock “I think the development of dance, being influenced by the audience and the mode of consumption, has skewed towards visual and sensory gratification, favouring dazzling and stunning details in a regular fashion. In my opinion, a dance piece does not need to be astounding. By contrast, it is something natural. One only has to practice perceiving one’s body and convey one’s feelings with it.” “Think about the Taiwanese indigenous people, who would sing and dance upon hearing music. Chronicling the history of their family or their surnames, their tunes are deeply ingrained with their local culture and spirit. Their movements never feel indecisive or embarrassing. Everything feels natural and authentic. That’s what dance is about.” “Human is born to be a dancer. Every movement can be a dance.”
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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About Ong Yong Lock Born in Malaysia, Ong Yong Lock joined the Hong Kong Dance Company in 1989 and the City Contemporary Dance Company in 1993. Touring with the Company, he performed in a variety of places, including the Mainland, Taiwan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea, Japan, France, and Israel, etc. Ong was a founding member of South “ASLI” Dance Workshop (SADW) and the Artistic Director of SADW (1997-2001). In 1989, Ong joined the Expressions Dance Company in Brisbane, Australia and appeared in the Brisbane Festival 1998. In the same year, he was invited to teach modern dance in Japan and Malaysia and to choreograph for the 19th Chinese Dance Festival in Malaysia. In 2000, Ong was invited for participating in the East Dragon Dance Festival and World Dance in Japan. In 2002, he was conferred the Hong Kong Dance Awards for his brilliant choreography in ballet 4, a collaboration with The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and was appointed as arts advisor of dance by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He also won the Award for Best Artist (Dance) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2014.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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Games to Unlock Your Body: Let’s Dance Together You could stimulate the perception of your body and create its rhythmic movement whether you are staying in a classroom or at home. Spare some spaces, pick up tiny objects from daily life, use them as your props, and let’s dance! Activity 1: Dance with a Plastic Bag Caution: parental accommodation is required for students aged 6 or below. 1. Open the bag and fling 2. Fill with air and ball it it up and down. up.
Props: plastic bag (one per student) #1.1 Throw the ball-like bag up into the air. By coordinating your hands and body, catch the bag without producing any noise. Try to feel: • Catch the bag silently with miscellaneous body parts: hands, palms and wrists, etc. Notice how it feels. • Use other body parts: shoulders, legs or even your head. Could you notice any difference? #1.2 Open the bag and flutter it to produce noises. Afterwards, go through the same procedure in a silent manner. Try to feel: • How different in the sound produced as the speed of flinging varies? • How did you adjust your pace so as to soften your movement? • Could you deliver the required rhythm with divergent strength levels and directions?
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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#1.3 Ball up the bag again and put it on the floor. With the slightest movement, move it to another position. Try to avoid producing even the tiniest bit of sound. Try to feel: • What kinds of subtle actions allow you to make no noise at all? • Are perceptions of your fingertips sharpen? #1.4 Let the participant direct the movement of the tutor without asserting too much strength. Afterwards, let other participants lead the motion with the slightest force. Try to feel: • How does moving people differ from a plastic bag? • How should one present an attitude of appreciation and caution to others? • How does it feel to become a “plastic bag”? Key Aspects of Perception Practice: • Concentrate your mind on the present moment as you are controlling every muscle of yours. • Be aware of your own body. Notice what sort of changes can be caused to the object by changes of your own. • How to loosen your body tension and handle the objects in front of you. • Connect with things in your everyday life with more consciousness. Sharing by Past Participants: • “I thought students were demure and reluctant to participate. But they engaged themselves fully and I was moved by their work.” • “I appreciate the simple arrangement of choreography, which is easy for the students to follow.” Excerpts of video recording of exercises and performances from Bolero Body Workshop (Hungary, 2017)
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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Activity 2 Dancing on a Magic Square Props: Coloured Gaffer tape 1. Make a magic square on the floor with Gaffer tape. 2. Sizes are adjustable, suggested size is 1.5m x 1.5m. 3. Picture the magic square as a phone’s keypad in your mind. Spaces outside the magic square are “zero”. #2.1 Stand on the central square (No. 5), step on a numbered box with one foot and move to another in chronological order (1 – 9). Repeat the same line of action with another foot. Afterwards, repeat the above procedure in reverse chronological order. Finally, the tutor will come up with diversified orders and ways of stepping. Try to feel: • When your feet gradually remember the positions associated with each number. #2.2 Move your step following the number combination assigned by the tutor, which may grow in length, consisting of 2 to 5 numbers in total. You may even adopt the order of your phone number. Try to feel: • Whether your upper body is at ease as you are stepping on and moving around the different squares. #2.3 Magnify the movement of your legs by, for instances, turning a circle before going to the next position Try to feel: • How individual body parts move or rest to achieve balance? • How do you naturally create body moves?
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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#2.4 Bringing one more participant to the magic square. Facing separate directions and following the sequence of your phone number, move your steps in the same rhythm to develop a duet. You may hold each other hands if needed. Try to feel: • How would the duo coordinate and cooperate? • How would you accommodate each other if you are both stepping on the same number? Key Aspects of Perception Practice: • While you focus on the movement of your feet, how do other body parts cooperate? • As you are moving to another numbered box, your body will naturally move in rhythm and turn itself into a dance. • Feel the connection with an unknown partner when you are dancing together within a limited space. Sharing of Past Participants: Demonstrations by Unlock members • “Noticing the craziness of my friends, I’ve discovered another side of them.” • “It was fun! It is completely different from my previous dance classes.” Activity 3: A piece of paper and a pair of hands Props: a piece of A4 paper #3.1 Spread your palms and place a piece of flat A4 paper on them. Close your palms and touch the top surface of paper with your fingertips. Then spread your palms quickly again to the starting position. When you are familiar with and understand the speed of the paper’s falling, you may increase the difficulty by touching the paper twice with your fingertips or striking a pose before you release the paper. Try to feel: • The weight of paper and the speed of its falling. • The tingling sensation of the paper on your fingertips • The cooperation and conformity of your body when you are changing your action
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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#3.2 Bend your knees slightly, spread your hands and lower them to the height of the waist. Place a piece of A4 paper sheet on your palms and raise them upwards to the head’s level. Release the paper and press it downwards with our palms. Spread your legs to shoulders level. As you are pressing the paper, blend your knees slightly at the same time. Make sure the paper is adhered to your palms during the process. Try to feel: • The coordination of muscles in your limbs as your body stretches out • The timing when you change the movement of hands to press the paper downwards Key Aspects of Perception Practice: Through simple exercises, take notice of how motley senses observe and address simultaneously the state of object, for instances, how your limbs cooperate to support the paper when it is falling and how to control the tiny movement of your palms to make sure the paper is adhered to them. All these contribute to the training of cooperation among eyes, hands and legs.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
Demonstrations by Unlock members
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About Hands・Footprint・Sound #danceless Performance Series A body action becomes a voice that echoes into infinity. May it be a hand or a foot. The sound that it makes shall resonate. Finding inspiration in everyday life, we return to the basics to recall our dance instinct. Unlock Dancing Plaza has been exploring the possibilities and pleasures of the body rhythm based on the notion of #danceless. The company advocates that “everyone can dance”. The showcase will invite both amateur and professional artists, regardless of their backgrounds, to express themselves and connect with the community. Among the three public shows of #danceless, the first two will be co-performed by workshop participants and company artists. The last performance, Sound♯, will be performed by the Unlock artists.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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Interview with Artist: Ong Yong Lock’s Rhythmic Movement and World of Dance
With an ordinary setting and in the plainest, casual clothes, the dancers, staring and touching each other without any verbal exchange, were capable of drawing viewers’ attention with solely dances. They have managed to direct the audience to laugh, scream and even move along with them. This illustrates precisely what Ong Yong Lock, the artistic director of Unlock Dancing Plaza, seeks to embody in “dances”: an expression of the inner state that goes beyond words.
Just Someone Who Loved to Move in the Beginning In his earliest days, Ong was brought by his friend to an interview conducted by his first teacher, who was planning to set up a troupe and recruiting students in Malaysia. “I was only 18 and knew nothing about dance. I wasn’t particularly interested in them either. I was just someone who loved to move.” He admitted that the initial exposure to dances was intriguing; it debunked his assumed idea about them. Afterwards, he was overwhelmed when his teacher showed him the recording of Legacy, a production of Could Gate. “I was very young; deep down my heart I was restless. I realised that dances, being beyond the description of languages and words, were able to deliver my inner emotions and expectations. I was utterly touched by such form of art that transcends words.” The feeling of excitement compelled Ong to engage himself wholeheartedly in the art form and to further explore its unbound possibility. “I believe there does not exist an inherent mode of dances; they are not merely bodily movements or theatre plays but laden with more facets. Through collaborating with disparate partners, I have been attempting to inspire more approaches and perspectives.” The source of inspiration is not restricted to his partnership with professionals. He maintains that it is more essential to allow a vaster group of people to showcase themselves. “Unlock Dancing Plaza was founded with this particular intention to locate possibilities beyond the mainstream. The public participatory projects were launched later to promote such possibilities to the community and to induce revelations on perceptions for all of those who are not professionally trained.”
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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Dance is Everyday Life To Ong, the practice of dances does not necessitate flamboyant sensations or demanding techniques but the articulation of one’s feelings from deep down inside. “It is certainly compulsory to practise. You have to learn to perceive your body through practices before you could transcend your feelings with rhythmic movements. This refers to a sense of purity shown by the eagerness to dance upon hearing music, all of which originate from the body and its surrounding.” This explains his regular cooperation with theatre actors. “They reflect no traces of professional trainings, but they are equipped with insightful mindsets and perceptive bodies. Understanding themselves thoroughly, they are willing to connect their inner and outer states. Their performances are impressive even without outstanding techniques. Authenticity is what resembles our desired effect to a deeper level!” Despite the commonly held belief that dances are unattainable, Ong and his troupe have been intensively propagating them as nothing more than ordinary life. “Dances, and even arts, are unlikely to develop in Hong Kong. It is due to the assumption that dances are nutrients only for the wealthy, cultured, and people who are inclined to art. Those who do not comprehend dances have nothing to do with them.” To Ong, dances are instinctive and should be feasible at whatever time and space. In December 2019, they imparted a workshop in Japan, where they confronted language barriers and the reserved nature of Japanese people. Nonetheless, the participants were able to realise through body languages. They did not only break loose of their emotional chains and enliven the atmosphere but genuinely experienced what was being implied by the dance.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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The Ideal World of Dance According to Ong, while an “appealing” dance calls for solid choreography and execution only, a “good dance” should merge itself with the society and culture. “A fundamental mindset is needed by the society to address life, culture and mental world. As such, any form of art is able to grow and become graspable by everyone.” So what is your ideal world of dance? On this Wong replied, “I am not asking the whole population to get involved in dance or counting the number of people who do so. Its success should not be defined by the numbers. All I want is to cultivate harmony in the world of art, in which everybody can accept or actualise natural rhythmic movement. It does not really matter whether we label it as dance or not.”
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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Online Resources Dance Knowledge and Tips: Do We Benefit from Dance? A quantity of research has proved that dance is constructive to strengthening and improving the physiological and cognitive capacities. Elders who have received dance trainings out do those who have not regarding their competences in casual activities, cognitive abilities, reflexes, balances and perceptiveness. Unlike many sports, dance movements involve the coordination with music as well as the application of perceptive, rhythmic and artistic capacities. This offers an opportunity for people to explore their bodies. Furthermore, a study of neuroimaging reveals that dances are more effective in bolstering certain cerebral areas. Apart from the activities mentioned in p.6–10 of this kit, the troupe also introduces two Mosquito Slapping practices. You may exercise your body at home to explore the changes dances can generate regarding your bodily cognitive, reflexes, balances and perceptions. Training areas: cognitive, reflexes, balances and perceptions
Mosquito Slapping practice (beginner version)
Mosquito Slapping practice (enhanced version)
Japanese Creative Dance Education in Hong Kong By Fung Hin-fung (Graduate of Master of Philosophy, Chinese University of Hong Kong, his research focused on Kant and his aesthetics and touches on the philosophy of dance and body, and now works in arts administration for outreach activities) Published in 2018, Fung in his report compared the creative dance programmes and systems operated in Japan and Hong Kong and the nurturing of knowledge about creative dance in both places. Full Article Physical Expression Education Physical Expression Education is co-devised by Namstrops and Professor Rumiko Takahashi from the Faculty of Education and Culture of the University of Miyazaki. With dance teaching materials that are easy to learn and master, it enhances the concentration and performance of students and offers them the delight of dancing.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
Namstrops dance workshop
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Participating Art Group: Unlock Dancing Plaza
Publisher: Hong Kong Arts Development Council Editor: Cultural Connections Design: PAPAPER Date: September, 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
JOCKEY CLUB New Arts Power
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