Category: Choreography

Categories
Choreography Col­lab­or­a­tion Performance

Stillness

Stillness 

Stillness [A new HKAF commission]

An interactive digital experience inspired by a site-specific performance and multimedia installation by Wayson Poon, Vvzela Kook, Peter Lenaerts and Dylan Kwok

Explore the interactive experience now: http://www.stillness.website/

Concept, Choreographer and Dancer: Wayson Poon

New Media Artist: Vvzela Kook

Sound Artist: Peter Lenaerts

Dramaturg: Dylan Kwok

Creative Producer: KALOS Productions HK

 

An interactive digital experience inspired by a site-specific performance and multimedia installation to soothe our fluctuating state of mind during the pandemic.

Stillness carves out a resting place, a shelter for the body and mind in times of uncertainty. Conceived by Hong Kong choreographer Wayson Poon, this site-specific work was originally created to perform in the cosy space of the former Holding Cell in the Tai Kwun Central Magistracy as a highly personal performing art experience, admitting one audience at a time. Facing the uncertainties brought by the pandemic and venue closure, artists got together to reimagine the possibility of moving the work online and created a digital experience with a virtual “holding cell”, inviting audience to enter this cold-looking virtual environment.

“What if we treat the former Holding Cell in the Tai Kwun Central Magistracy like a person? What would I most like to bring her?” “Warmth.”

“Where would I most like to bring her?” “Somewhere near the sea…”

— Wayson Poon, Concept, Choreographer and Dancer of Stillness

Everything begins in the physical space from which leaps boundless imagination. Using new media art, video and sound, Stillness carves out a virtual resting place for the body and mind. It leads the viewer on a journey of slowing down and taking in their sensory signals. In this digital encounter with physical movements and multimedia, listen to your needs and soothe your fluctuating state of mind.

The programme is an interactive online experience, and all the more rewarding if you come prepared to receive warmth. Relax and release tension through sight, sound and touch, in a moment that is yours and yours only. Experience a long-forgotten calmness.

For a complete experience, viewers are recommended to prepare a hot water bag or a balloon filled with warm water.

 

Concept, Choreographer and Dancer: Wayson Poon (Hong Kong, China)

New Media Artist: Vvzela Kook (Hong Kong, China)

Sound Artist: Peter Lenaerts (Sydney, Australia/Belgium)

Furniture Designer: Dylan Kwok (Hong Kong, China)

Creative Producer: KALOS Productions HK

Stillness was commissioned by and premiered at the 2022 Hong KongArts Festival for HKartsFestival@TaiKwun.

 

Categories
Choreography Performance

A Letter to Father

A Letter to Father

Chanting in the fog as he roams an idyllic landscape, he dances as if he is talking to someone.

What is the current moment? Choreographer Wayson Poon is experiencing the time of change, or the stage of change. Looking for someone to talk to, he found his father, who passed away 15 years ago. Through dance movements and Nanyin, he holds a conversation that goes beyond space and time, talking to himself, to everyone, to the world.

Choreographer’s notes:
Last December, my sister and I had lunch together, and I talked about “you”… I cried when I wrote the following words. Do “you” think that is good for the introduction of the piece?
 
The sun and the moon come and go
to know, to understand, to comprehend, to realize
Sit down to have a meal, hold a bowl and hold chopsticks
Take a bath, dressing, go to bed, covering the quilt
The heaven, the earth, the dream,
Black, white, grey
 
Would “you” tell me now like 15 years ago?

Length: 14 mins
Country/Region: Hong Kong

Choreographed and performed by Wayson Poon
Performance (Naamyam): Chan Chi-kong
Filmed and edited by Vincent Ip

Commissioned and produced by 2021 Hong Kong Arts Festival – Hong Kong Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series 2021

Categories
Choreography Col­lab­or­a­tion Performance

Moving a memory

Moving a memory

July 29th – 31st 2021       PASSAGE Festival Helsingør, at 14.00 & 17.00 Location: Skolen ved Rønnebær Allé
August 5th – 8th 2021     Dansehallerne Copenhagen, at 14.00 & 17.00 Location: Gotvedinstituttet
November 18th – 21st 2021   New Vision Arts Festival Hong Kong, at 15.00 &20.00 Location: Kwai Tsing Theatre Rehearsal Room

Moving a memory is a performance and an exhibition created for a gymnasium. Convoi Exceptionnel explores experiences and memories connected to this space which most of us have a relationship with. The smell of lacquered floor, thick rope, and wooden rib walls. Scheduled exercise activating a wide range of emotions. The gymnasium is charged with fear and joy. A place in the past and present. Stage director and set designer Jon R. Skulberg says: ‘You walk into the gymnasium, sense your feet on the floor. The marked floor lines reveal a regime of movement. Now it’s your chance redefine the hierarchy and explore a new kind of poetry.’

The Nordic gymnasium is a symbol of the fit body, disciplined and trained to obtain a good health. An architectural manifestation of public health. We challenge the space’s authority and give it another language. It’s an invitation to move your memory.

The arc of the work is drawn up Convoi Exceptionnel, visual artist Maiken Bent, choreographer and dancer Wayson Poon, and composer and musician Paul Yip. On stage the dancers are Linette Stamp Christensen and Paul Pui Wo Lee.

Convoi Exceptionnel is a Nordic production platform made by Jon R. Skulberg in 2016. Jon is a Norwegian stage director and set designer living in Copenhagen. Convoi Exceptionnel creates evocative images with bodies, sound, and light as components. Immersive landscapes inducing impressions and demanding impact.

Wayson Poon’s choreographic practice is rooted in Qi and Taoism. He works from the mantra: “Reality is empty, emptiness is real,” which inspires a clear minimalism in his choreographic language.

Maiken Bent’s sculptures and installations are characterized by composition of strong colours, craftsmanship and a rough mix of chains, ropes, and soft materials. Her work exists somewhere between Gucci and The Home Depot, creating an interesting play of hierarchies. Longing and remembering cross paths through her transformations of recognizable objects.

Paul Yip’s Japanese and Tibetan inspired soundscapes has stable frequencies and vibrations inducing physical resonance in the bodies of everyone present.

Photo: Louise Herrche Serup

 

 

Trilogy for Educational Spaces
Moving a memory is the first piece in a trilogy by Convoi Exceptionnel. A site-specific trilogy meeting the audience at eye level. Rich atmospheric experiences in the setting of everyday life, away from the usual terrains of art. Convoi Exceptionnel investigate three different spaces – The gymnasium, a swimming pool, and a classroom. The performances challenge the cultural codes of educational spaces.

Concept, space, stage direction: Jon R. Skulberg (NO/DK)
Choreography: Wayson Poon (HK)
Installations: Maiken Bent (DK)
Composition and live music: Paul Yip (HK)
Dancers: Wayson Poon, Paul Pui Wo Lee, Linette Stamp Christensen (DK)
Additional dancer for Hong Kong Performances: Kingsan Lo
Dramaturg: Astrid Hansen Holm (DK)
Creative producer: Lene Bang (DK)
Hongkong producer: Carrol Ho @KALOSProductionsHK (HK)
Tour manager: Sigrid Aakvik (NO/DK)
Scenography and production assistant: Olga Regitze Dyrløv Høegh (DK)
Production: Convoi Exceptionnel and Onthewayson

Co-production:

Supported by:

World premiere – Summer 2021

Moving a memory is a performance and an exhibition created for a gymnasium. Convoi Exceptionnel explores experiences and memories connected to this space which most of us have a relationship with. We challenge the space’s authority and invite you to move your memory. You can experience the work at PASSAGE Festival in Helsingør and in the Gotved Institute in Copenhagen presented by Dansehallerne this summer.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Choreography

Untitled III

Premiered on 12th Oct 2018
At Theatre, The Ngau Chi Wan Civic Centre, HK

“Form without form, Path without path, Motion without motion,
Self without self.”

Inspired by the paintings of Liu Wentao, in which ‘the intertwining straight lines result in a tranquil geometric space’. From a Chinese philosophy perspective, the choreography goes on to explore the concepts of ‘dot-line-plane’ through the physicality of the dancers, their extended dynamics, and the relations in between these two. Untitled III reveals the shifting relations between the states of ‘Have Not, or Non-existence’ and ‘Have, or Existence’, further to reflect the emotional and physical distance between individuals in order to attain inner peace.

Choreography: Wayson Poon
Music: Paul Yip
Lighting: Tsz-yan Yeung
Dance: King-san Lo, Lok-hin Chan, Kerry Cheung, Ming-yan Ho, Wing Lai

 

 

 

Categories
Choreography Performance

Vortex

Premiered on Hong Kong Arts Festival 2018
Feb 24 – 25, 2018
Studio Theatre, HK Cultural Centre

Choreographers and Dancer: Wayson Poon
Sound Artist & Composer: Peter Lenaerts
Dancer: Lo King-san

Choreographer’s note
In this work, dance and sound are intertwined in an abstract world, where the essentials in one’s daily life are felt. Human civilisation is constantly redefining what is legitimate or appropriate, when many of its preconceptions are rooted in ignorance. Humans, who have long been accustomed to constraints, have drifted away from their true selves. In this moment, can we contain the whole world in our enfolded existence, and open up the space for an expanding vortex or trajectory?

**”Vortex” was commissioned and produced by the 2018 Hong Kong Arts Festival and was premiered as part of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series.  
Categories
Choreography

Intersection

Intersection
Premiere at the 19th Hong Kong Dance Awards
4 minutes and 30 seconds

Inspired by the interweaving fine, straight lines and geometrical space created in the paintings of Liu Wentao, a renowned contemporary Chinese visual artist and painter. Choreographer intends to explore the concept of “dots-lines-planes” through dancers’ bodies, movement and their connections with each other and the space from Chinese philosophical point of view. In Intersection, the ceaseless interchanging between light, space, stillness and motion demonstrates a combined dialectical relationship between “nothing/absence” and “something/presence”, thus reflecting the emotional and physical distance between two individuals in a calm and peaceful state of mind.

 Choreography:  Wayson Poon

Dancers: Takao Komaru, Kingsan Lo

Original Music Composition and Performer: Paul Yip

Lighting Design: Lee Chi-wai

Acknowledgement: Part of the material for this work was researched and developed as part of the residency exchange project “Creative Meeting Point: Hong Kong x Finland” supported by West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, Dance Info Finland, Zodiak – Centre for New Dance, and Dance House Helsinki.

Categories
Choreography Col­lab­or­a­tion Performance

in,visible(cities);

I-Dance Festival (HK)2016    i-Dance Lab 1&2

28/11 20:00   Black Box Theatre, Kwai Tsing Theatre

Choreographer and Performer: Wayson POON (HK)

Multi-media Designer and Performer: Adrian YEUNG (HK)

 

in,visible(cities);

City, memory, desire, symbols, names, death, sky…..departing from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, between the visible and invisible walls and gaps, the body saunters the virtual cities and writes Marco Polo’s travel journal with programming language.

This is a journey of the laboratory to the stops chosen by you/me/he/she, no destination to be reached. People reside in bow-like space (the city) and transit between boxes of various sizes. What connects these boxes? Questioning the text, questioning the body, questioning the new media, questioning Siri, questioning Google… the mind rolls at this very moment on Nov 28, 2016, 8pm is the time when one meets, sees and touches that very different of our senses.

 

Music:

Caminando (Mapa) – Pokémon GO OST

Maxim Werner (Kyiv, Ukraine)

Acknowledgement：

“The collaboration was conceived and developed from the “New Works Forum: Multimedia and Dance Dialogue – Hiroaki Umeda” presented by the West Kowloon Cultural District.”

“Annie Wan”

“BELLISSIMA ITALIA”

 

 

Categories
Choreography Performance

Embody/Body

Embody/Body
Choreographed by Wayson Poon
June 2016
Yinzi Theater, Chongqin, China

(External webpage)

Categories
Choreography

I Forget Where We Were

I Forget Where We Were
Choreographed by Wayson Poon
August 2015
Yinzi Theater, Chongqin, China

(External webpage)

Categories
Choreography Performance

Fleeing By Night 2

Fleeing By Night 2
Choreographed by Wayson Poon
March 2015
Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Hong Kong

Fleeing By Night 2 (on tour)
Choreographed by Wayson Poon
@Shanghai Dance Festival 2016
August 2016
Magnolia Theatre, Shanghai, China

 

Life experience and my works are interconnected. I’m not a man of words, I only know how to communicate with others through the most direct, most frank means. As the proverb goes, “At 30, one would not stagger, and at 40, one begins to understand the world.” I began creating Fleeing by Night in mid 2013, which forced me to ask myself many questions. At the same time, I was working with many different artists, which helped to answer a lot of questions. This also gave life to my creation, allowing it to grow and evolve…

One of the functions of art is to lead people to think. Not just to move them, but to create space for discussion through contradictions in thought. With a new edition, new life experiences and new collaborations, I look forward too, to new discussions among the audience.

This is a performance with international vision. The interaction between choreography and new media demonstrated the exploration and innovation of contemporary dance. It is an unforgettable and exiting sample of contemporary dance creation in Hong Kong.Gu Tao (Artistic Director of Yinzi Theater)

(Review)
(Programme in PDF)