Bridge Back to Paradise

Last but not least, we have choreographer Desiree Ho who’s created Bridge Back to Paradisefor Ocean Art Walk 2014 in Stanley!

How did you incorporate the ocean theme into the choreography?
When creating this piece, I was inspired to talk about ocean issues that were specific to Hong Kong’s waters. One obvious issue that jumped out to me was the adverse effects of industrialization and urbanization to Hong Kong’s ocean biodiversity, in particular land reclamation, industrial waste pollution and plastic disposal. Therefore, the starting point of our piece was to create a picture of what the oceans used to be like before urban encroachment into the seas.

The second piece then mimics the process of industrialization, and incorporates many mechanical movements inspired by building construction, land reclamation and ocean waves. I hope it goes to show the impact we have made on our oceans in just a very short time in history.

When creating the music mix for this piece, a background track of ocean waves was also added to run throughout the whole track, to further amplify the ocean theme. We also made use of these sounds in creating our choreography.

How did you choose the music?
I lived in the UK for a while and met a friend from Denmark called Kristian who was a HUGE fan of Coldplay. Whenever we hung out at the malls or in restaurants where there was music playing, he would sometimes suddenly stop everything he was doing, and suddenly blurt out “That’s Coldplay playing!”. He would always talk about how awesome Coldplay was and even travel abroad just to see their concerts. Even though that was a few years ago, I’m still very influenced by his enthusiasm… so when I was looking for music I listened to a lot of Coldplay covers and found this amazing African-style version of “Paradise” by ThePianoGuys and Alex Boye on Youtube, and I just knew I had to use that. For the second part of the choreography I was looking for something that was quite mechanical and would immediately conjure the image of construction works. I was aware that Gotye’s music plays around with rhythm and had awesome beats that could work, so that was my starting point.

What were the major challenges of creating this work?
One of the major challenges was that this work was created very site-specific to the performance venue, and incorporates the backdrop of the Stanley Promenade ocean view into the piece, so the dancer-choreographers had to use their imagination a lot in devising the work! For example, we would use stools instead of the on-site statues that we danced with, or benches to mimic the sidewalks. During rehearsals we also went downstairs to the Island East area to use the public sidewalks or railings to mimic the actual performance space, which also enabled the dancer-choreographers to create choreography specific to the space. Then again, because the piece is so site-specific, another big issue is weather concerns!! Rehearsal time was also limited, but obviously having done a lot of work with YAF now I’ve gotten quite used to that, and all the dancers work really hard and are very switched on, so we’ve learnt how to use our time effectively.

What can audiences expect from the performance this year?
A tasteful mixture of both visual arts and performing arts!! Choreography created by the young dancer-choreographers themselves!! Also, to see how a group dancers of such a variety of ages (10 to early 20s) have worked together in creating this work.

Any funny rehearsal memories?
Yes!! It rained cats and dogs during our on-site rehearsal, but the dancers were SO professional and continued dancing with their umbrellas even though it was so wet and windy! It was also really sweet to celebrate my birthday with my team this year!!

Don’t miss the dance performances at Stanley Plaza! 12/4/2014 at 2:30pm; 13, 19, 20/4/2014 at 12pm, 2pm and 4pm.