No End
City Contemporary Dance Company
Kwai Tsing Theatre
Reviewed: Dec 6
Helen Lai Hoi-ling's new work for the City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) is inspired by the films of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, who died in 1996 aged 54. The music is by Kieslowksi's collaborator Zbigniew Preisner and includes the requiem he composed in the director's memory.
Lai has avoided direct portrayal of the films, focusing instead on their underlying themes of isolation, alienation and the need to connect with other human beings. In a series of brief tableaux, shafts of light pierce a dark landscape where people wander alone or occasionally meet in moments of tenderness or brutality. Viewed as if from a passing train, scenes are suddenly illuminated then lost in the night, loosely linked by a figure (perhaps representing Kieslowski or Lai) who observes but does not intervene.
