The hot dancers of France

In just a few weeks' time, a freight plane will stand on the tarmac at a French airport waiting for takeoff to Hong Kong. Inside, packed so tightly into open-ended boxes that there will hardly be room to move, will be 27 horses. A vet will calm the flighty creatures because the final moments are always nerve-wracking despite the fact that many are in their late teens. And when the plane finally lumbers down the runway, it will take the gentlest possible trajectory. For its passengers, heading for a gruelling 18-hour journey to the SAR, are a bunch of prima donna performers.

Ultra is a joker who gets a kick out of scaring people, Boy chews tobacco when he can get it, Naamar is a bit of a luvvie when all's said and done, and Smoking makes no bones about it - he just wants to be a star. Nothing new from top performers, then, and considerably less difficult to handle than your airborne Canto-pop star. Rather more impressive standing ovations too: someone clocked 16 minutes of applause at their last - their only - appearance in Asia, when the Japanese royal family were among those on their feet in Tokyo.

But still, there has been discernible nervousness among organisers as they prepare for the arrival of the horses and then the riders of the elite Le Cadre Noir - the 'Black Hats' - of the French cavalry. What will audiences here make of one of the biggest, most bizarre shows ever to come to Hong Kong? How do you sell Le French May's main production in which horses perform to opera, their balletic movements perfectly synchronised with music, to an audience more used to the din of cheering on their racetrack favourites? In the dim hours of a spine-numbingly cold morning in the heart of France last month, this question was clearly not worrying riders as they practised. 'What will the fishing be like in Hong Kong?' one asked, perfectly seated as his horse sidled crab-like past where I sat in their main arena. 'Where should we go to shop?' called out another, as his mount gave a quick buck and was brought disapprovingly to heel. Not having to worry about ticket sales, the riders of Le Cadre Noir, an organisation steeped in tradition - their colonel traces his military antecedents back to the Crusades - are very excited about their trip.

But chatter doesn't last for long. The mornings are spent training under the eagle eye of Colonel Loic de La Porte du Theil, a man who does not need to do anything to have you spring to attention. This rather amuses him. The sand in the arena is kicked around as the riders warm up. The only sound is that of riders on leather saddles, of jingling bits, horses snorting as their paces increase, and very occasionally a sharp command from the colonel. A painter wanders into the arena with his easel - someone is always painting these horses. From the box above us comes a sudden blast of Offenbach. For a moment, the horses are in time with the tune, a rank of them pacing to the exact beat, and the effect is magical.

Later, they surround the colonel with their heads down and, at a shouted command, send sand flying as they do what is to a great extent a handstand, hind legs punching the air in a movement known as the croupade. Years ago it was meant to knock out unfortunately placed enemies. Now it is one of three remarkable movements (with the courbette and the capriole) called airs above the ground that are the highlight of all shows and the result of years of training. 'The man is the brains, the horse is his body,' says the colonel, their ecuyer en chef, 'the means of expression.

'The training is so intense, so difficult, eventually you reach a stage where the horse responds to automatic movements from the riders. The horse is supple and relaxed and it really doesn't matter what discipline you pursue.' Moving these creatures halfway round the world for their three performances here in May has proved a massive logistical exercise involving more than 160 people and costing about $8 million.

Nearly four weeks after the horses travel, and just a few days before the performance, 80 riders and staff will arrive. They join another 80 staff here who will already have spent weeks altering the Coliseum venue, not to mention building 24 stables and a large warm-up area outside it. They will have carpeted the arena in special sand, needed to cushion the horses tremendous impact with the ground during their airs above ground, have laid special drains, supervised the arrival of 600 kilograms of feed and steered through the special permits needed to clear the horses quickly past customs and into quarantine in Sha Tin at the Jockey Club's stables.