From 1928… at The Peninsula Hotel

Hope everyone’s had a fantastic summer! We’ve been busy lining up exciting projects for the next few months, including another performance at The Peninsula Hotel this Sunday 22 September! So we thought, what better way to get everyone excited than to hear from those who danced in our June performance, From 1928.

From our brilliant choreographer Kirsten Ho (DANCE Kho)…

Growing up in Hong Kong, I remember going to The Peninsula Hotel on special occasions to have afternoon tea. The glamour and elegance of the hotel lobby is a breathtaking sight and I was so pleased that the dancers would be able to perform right in the centre of it all.

The concept of my piece was to celebrate the architecture and rich history of the hotel. From 1928 (hence the piece is called From 1928) when The Peninsula Hotel first opened its doors as the ‘finest hotel East of the Suez’, to 1994 when the hotel expanded with an addition of a modern 30-story tower and today with its fine reputation and timeless glamour.

To represent these three distinct time periods I decided to separate the dance into three sections. The first dance opened with the energetic beats of Benny Goodman and the jazz dance styles popular in the 1920s. The second piece was a more abstract contemporary piece using a piece of music from 1994. The movement used a lot of lifts and reaching to represent the 30-story tower rising to the sky. Lastly, to finish of the piece I had the dancers dancing to a more current piece of music weaving in and out of the lobby.

My ultimate goal for the dance was to reflect the distinct style of The Peninsula: the harmonious unification of the colonial with the modern. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and was very proud of my dancers who all worked so hard. The support from HKYAF and The Peninsula was fantastic – I couldn’t have done it without them and was very grateful for the opportunity.

Alice Iwasa, one of our dazzling dancers…

From 1928 was different from other performances that I have performed before since it was a site-specific piece. It was a privilege to perform at The Peninsula Hotel to celebrate their 85th anniversary. In addition, we finished this piece in just four rehearsals!

When rehearsing and performing for this piece, I felt that I have learnt how to work efficiently and collaboratively since we only had four rehearsals. It helped me improve my teamwork skills since we had to work together as a group, especially during the lifts!

I love participating in YAF projects like this since we get to meet new talented and amazing people! It allowed us to work with each other as a group, and create ideas and movements together! Also, since we had to improvise in this piece, it allowed us to explore many different movements, and learn from others as well.

Claudia Sham, one of our sparkling performers…

From YAF projects like these I meet so many different people, and also improve my technique and learning skills (that is, learning new choreography). YAF has helped me to be more creative in my movement, which is something that I was really struggling with!

This piece was really special and different to other performances that I’ve done before, because it has a very unique style and feel to it. The choreography was very creative and every person performs the piece in their own expressive way. From this performance I have learnt how to lift someone… it was kind of tough at first, but I was able to cope with it in the end.

Charmaine Chan, one of our shining dancers…

Our dance was divided into three sections and what I found unique about this piece was that each section told a different story. The first section was about the 1920′s and ‘happy memories’ at the Peninsula; the second was the rising of new buildings; and the last was modern time. Each piece had a different vibe or feel to it and it was clearly different. Kirsten composed a piece that showed the differences in time at the Peninsula and I thought that was unlike other performances I’ve done. I also liked how Kirsten choreographed based on the Peninsula, using the all the space. The fact that we didn’t have a performance stage was also interesting because we were dancing in the lobby of the hotel. People watching were either eating afternoon tea or standing around/ near us. It was different, but really fun to have a different performance environment. She made the lobby into a stage.

From this project, I learned jazz techniques/ dance as well as how to work as a group. We had to look at spacing, adjust accordingly, and we all had to “be in sync” for certain parts so that it would look neat. Also, being in a venue such as the Peninsula on a Sunday afternoon can be pretty packed so we had to learn how to adjust and just be flexible.

Like every YAF project, I learn so much and have a great time. I have lots of fun because we get to devise (make your own choreography) for parts and because of all the creativity. For these performances especially, I like how the choreographer brings out the venue. We dance in the venue and convey different aspects of it, which to me, makes the performance a lot more interesting to watch. It’s different to other performances and we had the chance to show a story.