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." Habitat Here is inspired by Tong's previous work, Rustling of Discourse , and German choreographer Christine He's Sleepy Sickness . (He will be one of the five dancers performing in this piece.) But the overarching theme is mainly influenced by the research works of Italian Alessandro Carboni, whom Tong met at the 2008 Guangdong Dance Festival. It's about how urban planning affects the body's relationship with space. Tong hopes to show his own response to Hong Kong's urban planning through this "structured improvised" piece. "I want to raise the idea that our body is influenced by the way our city is planned. For example, when a building is put in a certain location, we have to walk around it. Before, we could just walk straight through that area. Habitat Here is a place where our body originally resided before all the city planning." Rehearsals are different each day, as Tong explores concepts together with his dancers. He creates a carefree atmosphere in his studio, and lets the dancers do whatever they feel like. "They motivate themselves to make it work," he says. Cattle Depot Theatre, Cattle Depot Artist Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Rd, To Kwa Wan, August 1-2, 8pm, August 2-3, 3pm. HK$200, bodylab2014.pandaform.com Inquiries: 9205 2816
