International arts collaboration via Zoom a new model forged in the coronavirus pandemic; Hong Kong dance troupe is a beneficiary
- Dance work Colossus debuted in 2018 in Melbourne, and its choreographer, Stephanie Lake, has been directing performances online amid the coronavirus pandemic
- She has directed students from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts’ School of Dance, who will stage the show for the 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival
Intense, stirring and bitingly relevant, Stephanie Lake’s contemporary dance show Colossus has been making waves since its 2018 Melbourne debut, not least because the Australian choreographer has managed to remotely direct performances by dance students around the world, while not being able to travel.
After a Covid-19 postponement earlier this year, dates are set in August for performances by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts’ School of Dance for the 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival.
“Stephanie Lake has been at the top of my list as an Australian choreographer because I always find her work very bold, large-scale, and with a very strong impact,” says Professor Anna Chan Chung-ying, dean of the school.
After earlier attempts to perform Colossus at the academy were thwarted by Covid-19, the Hong Kong Arts Festival rang Chan in 2021 to ask if they could co-produce the show as part of the 2022 festival.
“I immediately said yes,” she says. “I think it’s the right time to bring this piece to the school of dance and to the city of Hong Kong to show the unified ensemble power that everyone is missing.”
