ReviewReview: Testimony – Hong Kong dancers revive Shostakovich story
Helen Lai’s choreography has stood the test of time, and work’s second half had the power and beauty of City Contemporary Dance Company’s original 2006 performances, but changes to its opening made little sense
The City Contemporary Dance Company revisited Helen Lai’s Testimony, a show the Hong Kong troupe first performed in December 2006, to open the City Contemporary Dance Festival.
One of Lai’s finest works from a golden era for the company, the choreography has stood the test of time. The second half retained all its power and beauty; however, changes to the first half diluted the depth and impact of the piece as a whole, and the performance by the current ensemble of dancers suffers by comparison to their predecessors in the outstanding original cast.
Testimony explores the life of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who found fame in the heady days of the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the Soviet Union was awash with innovation and inspiration in the arts.
In 1936 Stalin’s Great Purge began and Shostakovich was among those who found themselves vilified and disgraced. To avoid the fate of friends and fellow artists who were imprisoned or killed, for the rest of his life Shostakovich would walk the tightrope between serving his art and appeasing the authorities and, in spite of all he went through, would compose some of the 20th century’s greatest music.
