This week Sang Jijia set off to Germany for a stint under one of the world's greatest living choreographers - the legendary William Forsythe. Sang, a 29-year-old choreographer and dancer from Tibet, is one of five winners of the Rolex Mentor And Protege Arts Initiative. The philanthropic programme gives 'extremely gifted artists of great promise' in music, dance, literature, visual arts and theatre arts the chance to study one-on-one with the leaders in their fields. By working with Forsythe, Sang, who has been dancing with Hong Kong's City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) for the past three years, is about to be catapulted on to the world stage.
'I was born in the grasslands of Xia He, south of the province of Gansu,' says Sang, who sits on a sofa by his suitcase in the CCDC headquarters in Wong Tai Sin, where he nervously awaits word of his visa to Germany.
'When I was 13, staff from the Beijing Central University For Nationalities came to my school,' remembers the long-haired and remarkably long-legged man in scuffed Dr Martens and faded jeans.
'They had a policy to recruit dancers from rural areas, so [they] passed by our school and asked students whether they liked dancing. I said, 'yes', even though I had never danced before. They measured my body and flexibility and asked me to perform a dance, which I made up.'
Sang was selected and, despite his family's reluctance, was whisked off to Beijing. He graduated in 1993 as a fine dancer, but was utterly bored.
'I found ethnic dance very traditional in style - there was only one way of dancing it - whereas in modern dance the dancers could express their own ideas in their own unique ways. I was fascinated by this, so I joined the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, China's leading modern-dance company.'
Sang travelled widely with the troupe, and the international exposure led to his winning the gold award in the Male Solo Class at the Seventh Paris International Dance Competition. On his return he was named 'Star Of The Century' by the Guangdong provincial government and travelled to New York for a six-month choreography scholarship. Then came the move to Hong Kong.
