Arts preview: Suddenly / Frida

SUDDENLY / FRIDA
Y-Space

Expect the unexpected from Suddenly, Victor Ma Choi-wo's new piece for a modern dance double bill at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

When we meet up at his rehearsal studio, the Y-Space co-founder and artistic director is candid about the work being created out of a crisis. As it turns out, Ma was having difficulties commissioning an original work by an overseas artist to create a full-length production alongside celebrated choreographer Helen Lai Hoi-ling's Frida.

Frida is the 1996 work she agreed to restage with Y-Space. Due to budget concerns and a swiftly approaching performance date, Ma figured he might as well take charge of the programme's second half.

"We've always been working on improvisation and it means things can happen suddenly," says Ma, whose company has been presenting the annual improvisational dance festival i-Dance since 2009.

"We like to surprise the audience. In fact, I'm trying to include some emergency incidents to take the performers out of their comfort zone."

To further expand the possibilities, Ma has also enlisted Italian musician Sascia Pellegrini to provide live music accompaniment for the occasion.

While Ma promises that his part will be "very chaotic, very strange, mostly non-narrative and definitely illogical in a conventional sense", Lai is striving to revive her 17-year-old piece with as few changes as possible.

Even the music is predominantly taken from Frida's original production, which was restaged by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre in Taipei after its 1996 Hong Kong debut.

"This is one of my favourite works and it's also suitable to be performed by this company because it only requires a small cast," says Lai of her piece, which features five dancers.

"The work is not so much about [the Mexican artist] Frida Kahlo than it is about taking several of her paintings as its starting point. From there, I went on to freely interpret and imagine the rest. You may vaguely recognise some of her paintings in this dance."

Frida is a rare performance these days by the veteran, who intended to take an extended break after stepping down as a long-time resident choreographer of the City Contemporary Dance Company.

"I was hoping to spend some time to decide whether I still want to [choreograph new works] or not," Lai says with a smile. "But people just keep on inviting me - so it's a possibility that I may create a new work next year."

edmund.lee@scmp.com

Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre, 10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, September 13 and 14, 8pm, HK$180-HK$220 from Urbtix. Inquiries: 2470 0511