Arts Preview: Mayson Tong encourages improvisation in Habitat Here, a dance work

HABITAT HERE
Body Lab for Priori Tropism

Dancer Mayson Tong Wai-chun lives every moment on stage improvising. Calling himself "Greenmay" (after a piece in which he painted himself green), the 25-year-old founded the Body Lab for Priori Tropism, primarily to research and teach improvisation dance.

"All my dancers graduated from the Academy for Performing Arts, where they've learned to do certain moves a certain way. I try very hard to break the habits they've constructed," he says. "I'm not taking away their movements. I'm just opening up variety and diversity in their vocabulary."

Improvisation is often thought of as doing something without planning, but that's not how Tong understands it. "Improvising is not the same as being spontaneous, where everything you do is out of your control. During improvisation, there is a lot of observation between the dancers.

"In each rehearsal, we try to predict each other's moves. When we guess right, a deeper connection is formed," he says.

Tong puts his theory into practice in his latest show Habitat Here. "This dance is created by all of us. I'm just the person who inspires them to not be afraid to improvise," he says. "Improvisation is about living and finding freedom."