Dancing and painting would seem to be two incompatible forms of expression, with the former being immensely physical and the latter of a spiritual nature. Or are they?
Last Saturday, about 100 primary and secondary students gathered on the football pitch at QualiEd College to take part in a drawing competition. It was part of the pre-show activities of City Contemporary Dance Company's (CCDC) upcoming dance performance Colour Fugue on April 8 and 9 at 8pm in Kwai Tsing Theatre.
They used paintbrushes to capture the movements of CCDC dancers, who performed excerpts of Colour Fugue to get the students' creative juices flowing.
'[The students] all came up with very different paintings,' said award-winning choreographer Helen Lai. 'Some painted a large character dancing or many small dancers while some drew abstract paintings involving merely colours.'
Diverse responses to dance, painting and colours is one of the main themes of Colour Fugue, a performance that takes inspiration from vibrant paintings of renowned visual artist and writer Yank Wong Yan-kwai.
'There is a lot of energy in Wong's paintings, and his use of colours is very good. Looking at his paintings makes me feel the joy and restlessness of life,' Lai said.
The freedom that Lai granted her dancers in devising the structure and movements of Colour Fugue is unprecedented, as she tried to retain the individual style and personality of different dancers in the piece.