Kevin Ng

Hong Kong Ballet opened its new 2018/9 season last weekend to full houses with a premiere of ALICE (in Wonderland). This two-act production was choreographed by HK Ballet’s current artistic director, Septime Webre, who originally created this production for Washington Ballet in 2012 during his tenure there as artistic director.Act 1 has a prologue and four different scenes, while Act 2 has three scenes. The prologue sees Alice day-dreaming in her family home, and this is repeated in the ending. Later she dances a soaring duet full of lifts with Lewis Carrol, the author of Alice in Wonderland.Stage effects are impressive and occasionally recall Disney and Cirque du Soleil. The first scene Down the Rabbit Hole makes extensive use of fly wires. Alice reaching a gigantic size while dancing on pointe is spectacular and delighted the children in the audience. The second scene, Pool of Tears and the Caucus Race, makes clever use of blue fabric to depict the sea waves where Alice is swimming.This second scene is the best in the whole ballet in terms of choreography. The divertissements, with a duet for the eaglet and the Dodo Bird at the centre, as well as dance for a female corps de ballets of flamingos, provide a satisfying scope of classical dancing.  Yet while the virtuosic solos of the eaglet and the Dodo Bird are exciting, the choreography for the rest of the ballet is average.Act 1 ought to have ended here on this high note of excitement. However, there are still two more scen

Hong Kong Ballet’s final performances of this season were a mixed programme entitled Carmen and More. This also happens to be the last programme under Madeleine Onne, the Ballet’s current artistic director, who is set to leave. It’s a pretty intense evening, overall. Let’s begin with Carmen, the most publicised premiere of this programme. It’s a new work choreographed by two of the company’s dancers, Yuh Egami and Ricky Hu. Both have made decent progress in the past few years as ‘resident choreographers’, their best work to date being Bolero in 2015. This new production of Carmen is given a modern twist, being set in a garment factory. Carmen’s former lover Jose poignantly tells the story in a series of flashback as he revisits the now abandoned factory. The ballet’s novelty is quite attractive at first, but the drama becomes too melodramatic towards the end and Carmen’s murder. The ending – with Carmen lifted on high after her death – is rather clichéd. But the group dances for the factory workers are vivid and the choreography for the duets effective. The first cast was excellent. Ye Feifei was sexy and alluring in the title role and Liang Jing engrossing as the older Jose. As the young Jose, Li Jiabo’s obsession with Carmen and jealousy were powerfully expressed. Lucas Jerkander was suitably handsome as the factory owner with whom Carmen falls in love.This ballet was preceded by a revival of a 2014 ballet by Finnish choreographer Jorna Elo entitled Shape of Glow. Set to Mo

During the Christmas season, many ballet companies worldwide perform The Nutcracker. Since its 1892 premiere in the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in Russia, it's established that a good production of Nutcracker still yields its rewards on repeated viewings. Cinderella is another viable Christmas offering, but it just cannot compete with Nutcracker in terms of the box office.   So it’s no surprise that for this Christmas season the Hong Kong Ballet presented The Nutcracker again as usual. This existing production by the Australian choreographer Terence Kohler is now in its fifth year. Kohler used a different libretto by fellow Australian Clair Sauran which is original and works well. The sets and costumes designed by Jordi Roig are lavish.   Briefly, the main change to the traditional story line is that the magician Drosselmeyer gifts Clara a doll house instead of a nutcracker. It’s in the doll house that the Christmas Eve party and the subsequent battle between the rats and the Nutcracker’s arm take place in Act 1. In Act 2 the Sugar Plum Fairy is replaced by a ballerina doll who has been frozen earlier by the Rat King and is rescued by Clara and her brother Fritz. This version also introduces an additional character like Clarchen who is Clara’s favourite doll. She is performed by a student, and in Act 2 has a delightful solo in the Waltz of the Flowers. Kohler has made some minor revisions again this year, which has tightened the narrative. My repeated viewing this yea

Hong Kong Ballet premiered last weekend a new production of Lady of the Camellias, originally choreographed in 1994 by American choreographer Val Caniparoli. Based on Alexandre Dumas’ novel of the same name and set to a score by Chopin, this three-act ballet tells the tragic story of the courtesan Marguerite and her lover Armand. This premiere is timely, since it’s over a decade since local audiences last saw John Neumeier’s famous version of the ballet performed by the Hamburg Ballet at the Hong Kong Arts Festival.In the Caniparoli production, the narrative is pretty straightforward and the action is easy to follow. Act 1 starts with Marguerite’s chance meeting with Armand and ends with their bedroom duet. Act 2 opens with a party in a country garden in the summer, before Marguerte is visited by Armand’s father, who forces her to leave his son. Act 3 ends with a melodramatic solo by Marguerite before her death. Caniparoli’s choreography is too basic. There are not enough variations in the steps. In the duets, for instance, the big soaring overhead lifts occur too frequently – after a while, the routines become predictable and dull. The ensemble dances are also repetitive, and the duets soupy. That said, the final pas de deux towards the end of Act 3 for Marguerite and Armand is quite moving. And the group dance in Act 2 provides some exciting solos for the male soloists, particularly Li Lin and Shen Jie. The scheme of Caniparoli’s choreography is somewhat formulaic, leaving

Hong Kong Ballet opened its new 2016/7 season in late August with the most famous of ballets, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.  This is a decent production tailor-made by the previous artistic director John Meehan to suit the limited resources of the company.The choreography, based on an old American Ballet Theatre production, adheres mainly to the traditional Petipa/Ivanov text used by most Western ballet companies.  The additional choreography by Meehan and his team for the Act 3 national dances etc. however is not as good. The highlight this time was the guest principal dancer Jurgita Dronina from the National Ballet of Canada.  She was excellent in the double role of Odette/Odile.  As the White Swan Odette, she was meltingly tender and lyrical.  Her dancing was musical, and had weight and gravitas.  And as Odile the Black Swan, she was dazzling in her technical fireworks which she accomplished with ease and smoothness, especially the final series of turns around the stage. She however deserved a better partner than Jiabo Li who was only making his debut as the Prince.  He didn’t yet have the strength to conquer the technical virtuosity.  His solo dancing lacked shape and polish, and he looked flustered.  He hardly got off the ground in his jumps.  Jonathan Spigner outshone him in his solo in the Italian dance in Act 3.  Also among the supporting performances, Miao-miao Liu impressed in her solo in the Act 1 pas de quatre.  The national dances were performed without much stylishne