Is there a point in creating a dance that's based on the famous Tchaikovsky score of the beloved ballet, The Nutcracker? Yes, Hong Kong choreographer Yuri Ng Yue-lit said 13 years ago. At the time, he wanted to get a gripe he had against that work out of his system: that the Chinese sequence in the ballet should be performed the proper Chinese way.
Today, Ng's reason for reviving Firecracker, his adaptation of ballet master Marius Petipa's 1892 classic based on the story by E.T.A. Hoffman about a young girl's magical adventure, is far more complex and retrospective.
'I want to emphasise that both I and my work have since changed,' the 45-year-old says.
So the protagonist is no longer The Nutcracker's Clara but her ageing uncle, and Firecracker is not only a fairy tale but a commentary on our society today. Ng stresses that the performance - to be staged by the Hong Kong Ballet this week - is still, in essence, a piece of family entertainment for the Lunar New Year, but there are many more layers to it than meets the eye.
The firecracker stands for many things in the show, he says. It symbolises traditions, spectacular moments, creativity and, within the Hong Kong context, prohibition and indifference. 'Firecrackers are still banned in Hong Kong and I am curious why no one has challenged the authorities to have that ban lifted,' Ng says.
'Setting off firecrackers has long been a Chinese tradition for celebrations, but that was stopped here because it was considered dangerous. And people simply accepted that as a fact.'