Your latest collaboration with the Hong Kong Dance Company, Desperately Seeking Miss Blossom, delves into the world of lust and wild sex. How is this work inspired by the last Cantonese opera by librettist Tang Tik-sang?
Choreographer Mui Cheuk-yin: 'What really attracted me to creating this piece was Tang's extremely bizarre tale of love called The Reincarnation of Lady Plum Blossom, which was also his last work. It tells of a man who loves a woman not for who she is but because she looks like someone else he once loved, but was murdered. And, to make things more strange, she later dies and is repossessed by the spirit of a woman he really loves. I love the fact this is a romance, murder and ghost story all rolled into one.
'I think Tang got away with this kind of storyline because of his poetic and beautiful lyrics. There are a couple of themes I want to deal with in this piece - and they are not necessarily related to sex. The first is can love be easily replaced? Is love superficial? Secondly, can you replace a loved one with someone else like you would replace an object?
'My choreography is a more conceptual representation of my ideas than a straightforward piece of narrative, though we'll also make references to the story, through the use of props, to heighten its dramatic sense.'
Desperately Seeking Miss Blossom, Jan 25 and 27, 7.45pm; Jan 27, 3pm. Kwai Tsing Theatre. Tickets: HK$120, HK$180 and HK$260. Inquiries: 3103 1806
