Acid Ocean

With Ocean Art Walk 2014 in Stanley starting tomorrow and the dance performances created just for this festival finally having its grand debut, we grabbed Lindsey McAlister, one of the choreographers for a quick interview! 海洋藝術展2014在赤柱明天開始啦!先同編舞師麥蓮茜傾一傾!

Lindsey, tell us about Acid Ocean!
I gave as stimulus the issue of climate change warming the oceans and making them acidic, and how the coral is devastated as the colour is bleached out of it. We also touched on pollution and oil slicks.

有關《酸海》
《酸海》以氣候變化為主題，我給舞蹈員們解釋氣候變如何使海洋暖化，令到海水变酸導致珊璈白化，來啓發他們的創以去設計舞步。我們亦討論到污染及油污的問題。

The music…
For this project I asked 3 other choreographers to give me a piece of music that inspired them and they thought epitomized the ocean. Kirsten Hointroduced me to the music of Yann Tiersen, he writes a lot of film soundtracks…so I decided to use her suggested piece as my starting point and then I listened to lots of his other music and chose 2 other pieces of his which I thought complemented the first. Atlantique Nord, Prayer (No 3) and The Joke.

作品的音樂…
我詢問了三位不同的編舞者的意見，問他們會否認識一些可以反映海洋的音樂。編舞賀倩瑩就介紹了Yann Tiersen的音樂給我–他是專寫電影音樂的。於是我便決定以倩瑩議的歌曲為起點，再聆聽Tiersen其他的作品。最後就選擇了兩首足以襯托第一首Atlantique Nord–分別是Prayer No.3和 The Joke.

Major challenges…
Creating a piece that really addressed the issue…the first 2 sections look at the beauty of the ocean and the third piece is about the devastation. Creating the beauty was straightforward…flowing, sustained movements using the marine reef as inspiration. The 3rd section challenged the dancers as they needed to change their movement quality to angular, sharp, awkward movements extenuating body parts that gave a sharp edge like wrists, ankles, elbows, knees. Also the pace of the movement became more dynamic and explosive.

創作的挑戰
是創造一個真正可以表達到主題內容的作品…頭兩個部分歌頌海洋的宏偉, 而第三個部分就是關於破壞。創造海洋的美態是很容易就做到，以流暢、持續性的舞步為主，並以海洋珊瑚礁為靈感。第三節卻對舞蹈員較富挑戰性，因為他們需要突然改變整個舞蹈作品的風格，例如突出手腕、腳腕、手肘、膝蓋等部位來捕捉一種尖銳及奇異的感覺。同時，舞步的速度亦逐漸加快，變得充滿活力和爆炸力。

At the performance, expect…
12 dance-choreographers who have created, devised, learned and shared the process with the choreographers, as always we try and engage the young participants not just as dancers but we want to empower them to be the creators of the work, so they feel even more engaged in the work.

對於今次的作品，觀眾們可以期望…
欣賞到二十五位編舞舞蹈員自創的作品。與編舞們分享整個創作過程當中，我們如常鼓勵他們不僅擔當舞者，更要自行創作，成為排練中的主導， 更投入於作品裡。

Anything memorable from rehearsals?
Anca was assisting me with my group…which was GREAT! At one point we were creating choreography using shells as inspiration…and Anca came up with the cutest piece of choreography based on a mollusc shell…which she then taught to the group. It’s one of my favourite sections of the dance!!

可以分享綵排一些趣事嗎?
綵排的時候，編舞鐘胤淇很好，時幫手一起創作!! 有一次我們以貝殼為創作靈感, 而她就編了最可愛的╴段”貝殼”舞蹈，之後就教了我組的舞蹈員。這是我其中最喜愛的舞段之一!

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

舞蹈表演 - 赤柱廣場
12/4/2014 2:30pm 及 13, 19, 20/4/2014 12pm, 2pm, 4pm