Two of Hong Kong’s leading choreographers end City Contemporary Dance Company’s year on a high note

City Contemporary Dance Company ended the year on a high note with an outstanding double bill, She Says, He Talks, from two of Hong Kong’s leading choreographers.

The “She” is Noel Pong Chi-kwan, whose touching Leaving & Living examines the pain and remembered joys of mourning. “He” is Anh Ngoc Nguyen, whose ecology-themed Mother, I Am Sorry is a visual, dramatic and choreographic tour de force.

The Mother of the title is Mother Earth (Qiao Yang), who, devastated yet powerless to intervene, must watch the destruction humans inflict on a once perfect world and on each other. Only one of her sons (Kelvin Mak) responds to her and shares her distress.

This is a masterly work by Nguyen, beautifully structured and full of emotional intensity. The choreography flows effortlessly and bears a distinctive, original signature.

Nguyen is a designer as well as a choreographer and has created a stunning set composed of large, moveable boxes pierced with banks of steel rods. These are manipulated to form images of tormented figures (a reference to the imprisoned Titans of Greek mythology) or ledges on which the dancers climb and pose, adding an extra dimension to the vocabulary of movement.

The piece ends with a compelling monologue spoken by Qiao in Putonghua, with an English version interwoven, accompanied by a spectacular cascade of giant video images.