Earth's Endangered

Next up in our Ocean Art Walk 2014 in Stanley choreographer series… we have Anca Chung!

Anca, tell us about Earth’s Endangered
Ocean Art Walk 2014 in Stanley is all about using art to raise awareness of the fact that our everyday behaviour affects the health of our ocean. Instead of giving people the hard hitting facts to try and shock them into action, it hopes to capture people’s imagination and inspire them into positive action.

Earth’s Endangered is a piece dedicated to our majestic marine creatures. I wanted to show their tenacity yet vulnerability – how they keep fighting to survive in spite of us humans destroying their habitats and throwing the ecosystem off balance. It’s actually quite shocking what we’re doing to our one and only ocean. Although I’m already quite conscious of the environment (I majored in Environmental Studies), I’ve learned a lot working on this project. Just the other day, I was reading in National Geographic how the recent search for the missing flight has exposed just how polluted our waters are… But I’d like to think that it’s never too late to do your little bit and help make a difference.

Choosing the music…
I came across this piece of music about two years ago, and have been waiting for an opportunity to use it. It’s a beautiful instrumental version of DeVotchka’s How it Endswith six distinct melodic / percussion strands – perfect for representing different endangered marine animals.

During the first rehearsal, everyone shared interesting facts about their favourite marine animals. I was really inspired and actually learned a lot just from that! From there, the piano became the pink dolphins, the violin became jellyfish, the drums became the disruptive humans, the violin plucking and triangle became the seabirds and so on.

At the performance, you’ll see how the dancers have taken inspiration from these different sea creatures to create movements. And you’ll see how their creations illustrate the vulnerability yet tenacity of our marine animals. I can’t wait!

A major challenge…
One major challenge was creating a performance for in the round. Having to make sure that the piece looks good from all angles. It’s a great challenge though, and it means that no one ever dances in the back!

The dancers have been such an inspiration and have been real troopers, especially those who have never worked with me before… they now know how often I come in the following week wanting to improve on (i.e. change!!) everything rehearsed the week before!

Something funny…
There’s this one bit where everyone gets sooo focused on being the ultimate jellyfish that every time someone inevitably misses their cue and continues to be a jellyfish while everyone else has already moved on! I always crack up when that happens. Can’t blame the dancers, as that’s what I’ve been trying to get them to do – embody and be the sea!

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.