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Natasha Rogai
Natasha Rogai

La Scala Theatre Ballet’s Hong Kong Arts Festival performance of Le Corsaire had its moments, not least a star turn by Nicoletta Manni as Medora, but was marred by odd story choices and some untidy dancing.

Ariadne auf Naxos, which opens this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, pits highbrow opera against lowbrow commedia dell’arte, with powerful vocal performances and a strangely monochromatic design.

Featuring outstanding choreography and superb performances, the Hong Kong Dance Company’s staging of Helen Lai’s HerStory had even more impact than when it was first put on in 2007.

The opening show of the 2023 City Contemporary Dance Festival in Hong Kong, Stream of Dust, involves thousands of black ping-pong balls – and clouds of dust being pumped around the theatre.

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Ricky Hu Songwei, Hong Kong Ballet’s award-winning choreographer-in-residence, talks to the Post about studying in in China and New York and finding his artistic voice after switching to choreography.

Part of Hong Kong’s New Vision Arts Festival, the Hofesh Shechter Company’s Double Murder dance programme contrasts the nightmarish Clowns with the gentler The Fix.

Presented by the China National Opera and Dance Drama at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Tide of Era portrays China’s social, economic and technological development over the past 40 years.

Guest artists from the Royal Ballet and Berlin State Ballet gave stellar performances in Hong Kong Ballet’s La Bayadère – a production that highlighted the company’s own lack of depth but ended on a high.

Principal dancers at the UK’s Royal Ballet Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov relish being in Hong Kong for two performances of La Bayadère with the Hong Kong Ballet.

Ballet Superstars of the Future, a Hong Kong show by the American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company, showcases the talent of 12 young international dancers in an impressive and dynamic ensemble.

Created for the Hong Kong Ballet by a top international team, Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon features ravishing costumes and elegant sets, but makes little emotional impact.

Natalia Osipova’s dazzling dancing and demonstrations of astounding flexibility lit up her Hong Kong Arts Festival performances, while the fearless male guest dancers also impressed.

Soprano shows the exceptionally rich tone of her voice but also delicacy and astounding control, in a programme of Russian and other songs, ably accompanied by her husband and pianist Rachel Cheung.

Coco Chanel: the Life of a Fashion Icon, which the Hong Kong Ballet will premiere this month, explores the life of one of the most controversial figures in fashion in the 20th century.

Directed by Tang Shu-wing, Opera Hong Kong’s La Bohème – transposed from 19th-century Paris to contemporary Hong Kong – was filled with outstandingly talented young singers.

Brown, by Hong Kong’s City Contemporary Dance Company and Korean choreographer Kim Jaeduk, expresses a colour through extraordinary movement, costumes and lighting. A revelation.

Mowgli is a girl and fights the effects of climate change in Jungle Book Reimagined, a theatrical, multimedia dance work that marks the Akram Khan Company’s return to Hong Kong.

Ricky Hu’s hauntingly beautiful dance piece ‘The Last Song’ was in sharp contrast to ballet director Septime Webre’s ill-judged, overblown take on Carl Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’.

Venera Gimadieva as Violetta is mesmerising in Opera Hong Kong’s new production of Verdi’s La Traviata that is magnificently sung and superbly acted. Some of the staging choices work well, others less well.

Superb dancing, haunting music, imaginative costumes, inventive choreography and inspired set design combine in Nezha: Untold Solitude, Hong Kong Dance Company’s take on the dragon slayer of Chinese legend.

A new production by renowned choreographer Helen Lai brings the story of Astor Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires to life in Hong Kong, but felt rather sanitised compared with the original.

Hong Kong Ballet’s profile has never been higher and, despite the pandemic setting back its international ambitions, the company is set to wow the city with its upcoming production of The Nutcracker.

Ye Feifei and Amber Lewis were outstanding, and 11-year old Matsuharu Wesley Lai looks like a future star, but they deserved better than Cynthia Harvey’s 2010 production.

Neon signs, bamboo scaffolding, kung fu, Tybalt a triad boss – Hong Kong Ballet’s Romeo + Juliet looks stunning. Some of the drama is lost, however, and the dancing was patchy.

After two postponements it was third time lucky for Hong Kong Ballet, whose performance of Balanchine’s Jewels showed the troupe’s technique and energy.

Hong Kong Ballet replaced its cancelled live season with an online festival of filmed performances. While many pieces are danced strongly, they often suffer from overly fancy camerawork.