Post writer Natasha Rogai honoured at Hong Kong Dance Awards

South China Morning Post reviewer Natasha Rogai was honoured for her work in dance criticism at the 18th Hong Kong Dance Awards on Friday. The other winner in the outstanding service to dance category was theatre critic Lo Wai-luk for his 2015 publication In Search of Hong Kong Dance.

Rogai began writing for the Post in 2005 and has since been reviewing dance performances by flagship as well as independent companies, local and international, on a regular basis.

Anna Chan Chung-ying, head of artistic development (dance) at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, says Rogai contributes to the local dance scene not only with her critical writing but also her efforts in supporting and nurturing up-and-coming dance critics in the city through last year’s “Dance Enhance”, a programme supported by the Hong Kong Dance Alliance and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. “The award is well-deserved,” she says.

As a writer, Rogai has interviewed artists including Helen Lai Hoi-ling, Yuri Ng Yue-lit, Alexei Ratmansky, Sergei Filin, Dame Antoinette Sibley, Nina Ananiashvili and Li Cunxin. As well as writing for the Post, she also contributes to Dancing Times in the UK.

City Contemporary Dance Company’s Soledad , a piece based on Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, won three awards in outstanding choreography for Helen Lai, outstanding production, and outstanding ensemble performance.