week of culture

This past week, I engaged in many cultural activities...I feel so refined saying that! Last Sunday, my roommate and I went to see a performance by the Hong Kong Ballet. It was an "All Bach" performance, consisting of 4 pieces danced to, obviously, the music of Bach. Some of the pieces had live orchestra too, which added to the experience. The 1st half of the performance was refined and more "classical" ballet style. The 1st piece, called Concerto Barocco (danced to one of Bach's concerto for 2 violins) interestingly combined traditional ballet movements with modern shapes and ideas. There was a group of dancers plus 3 lead dancers (2 women and a man). The dance went very well with the music; I was impressed how the dance followed the counterpoint of the music by staggering the motions. The next piece was a little more modern (Clear), and showcased 7 men and 1 woman dancing to some other Bach Concertos. One thing that really out in my head was that with the when there was a little turn or flourish in the music, the dancers would also do a small movement such as wobble their heads side to side or clap their hands. Here's a clip of the dance on youtube, so you can get an idea.

The second half of the performance, while still ballet, was a lot more abstract. In the description of the first dance (Steptext), the program mentioned that it makes your expectations of the dance part of the dance itself, with the house lights coming on and off throughout the performance, short bursts of music and periods of no movement at all. The dance definitely met its description! A few minutes before intermission was over, the curtain came up and a bright light was seen on only part stage. The house lights remained on and eventually a male dancer walked out from the darkness and began to dance without music. Occasionally there was a loud interuption from on of Bach's violin partitas, but only for a few seconds. Later, 2 other men and a woman dressed in red came and did little solos without music. They danced together sometimes, the music would go on and off, and the houselights and stage lights would flash on and off as well. It was a little off putting at first, but at the end of the dance I actually really liked it.

The last dance (Mein Bach) was definitely the strangest. There were a lot of dancers on stage at a time and the dance was broken up into 11 different parts. The music consisted of some Bach music, and then some weird, dissonant electronic music. At one point, a long tube of about 5 or 6 florescent lights came down to the middle of the stage and the dancers flocked around it. The whole dance seemed almost extraterrestrial.

This past thursday, I went to the Hong Kong History Museum and saw the exhibit, The Hong Kong Story. The tickets to this museum (and most others) are extremely cheap..only 10 HKD and there is a 50% off student ticket. So I payed less than $1 for this museum. This exhibit followed hong kong history for 1000s of years. It was interesting to learn about the development of Hong Kong, especially the different people who came here throughout time, Hong Kongs position in the Opium Wars, the British Rule, Japanese Occupation and ultimately the handover back to China in 1997. This museum will definitely help me appreciate Hong Kong a little more.

My week of culture was capped of by a performance of Chinese Opera (Beijing style, I think Cantonese Opera is different) at the HK Cultural Center (or shall I say, Centre?) This performance was a compilation of scenes from different operas and had subtitles. This was my first live performance of any opera, let alone a Chinese one! The singing is not western at all. The singing is very high pitched, almost nasal, for both men and women. The audience audience always applauds after the actor finishes singing one word for a very long time (in one breath presumably), while changing the tone of the note. It was pretty impressive usually. The actors were accompanied by an orchestra of traditional chinese instruments, which had a really unique sound.

Chinese opera seems much more intricate and dependent on the singers themselves to tell the story, since there is very little props and scenerey. Every movement means something, as do the colors and parts of the very elaborate costumes. All the stories performed were very historical or had some moral, and I really liked most of them. Here is a picture I got from the bows. Unfortunately, the event was almost sold out, so my seat was in the absolute last row of the huge concert hall, so I wasn't able to really see the details of the costumes, masks and facial paint. I illegally used my camera to try and zoom in on the stage when the security guard wasn't sitting right behind me! Ultimately, there is so much more I need to know about Chinese opera to really appreciate it!

So that concludes my week of culture! It really isn't over yet, since this week I am going to a concert of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. There are so many concerts and performances going on because Feb-March is the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Maybe I'll go to some other performances before festival is over!