https://www.scmp.com/rss/330447/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com When Arunima Kumar discovered she would be performing for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth at the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer, the London-based dancer-choreographer said she was “absolutely elated”. The 43-year-old New Delhi native, who is renowned for performing the classical Indian dance form of Kuchipudi, will take centre stage at Westminster Abbey with students from her Arunima Kumar Dance Company in June. Her career has seen her dance at more than 2,500 events in over 50... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3178628/renowned-indian-dancer-arunima-kumar-perform-kuchipudi-britains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3178628/renowned-indian-dancer-arunima-kumar-perform-kuchipudi-britains?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 May 2022 09:00:30 +0000 The 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival has cancelled most of its in-venue performances. Organisers of the festival, which opens on February 28, made an early decision after the number of Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong rose sharply following the Lunar New Year holiday. New infections rose above 1,000 per day this week, and experts have forecast there will be 28,000 new infections per day by the end of March. The closure of performance venues, announced to curb the spread of Covid-19, has been extended... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3166571/hong-kong-arts-festival-cancels-most-venue-performances?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3166571/hong-kong-arts-festival-cancels-most-venue-performances?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Feb 2022 13:24:45 +0000 Halfway through our video interview, Lam Chun-wing – Hong Kong-born and bred and the first Chinese member of the Paris Opera Ballet – receives a phone call. It’s someone from France’s social security system, checking on whether the dancer is back at work yet. Last October, Lam broke his foot rehearsing a solo (from Jerome Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering, ironically enough) while wearing too-big leather boots on which he’d landed awkwardly. He has not danced since. A few months earlier, in April,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3165700/chinese-dancer-paris-opera-ballet-his-journey-injuries-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3165700/chinese-dancer-paris-opera-ballet-his-journey-injuries-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Feb 2022 05:45:19 +0000 Former Strictly Come Dancing star, Canadian national ballroom champion and choreographer for So You Think You Can Dance, Katya Virshilas moved to Hong Kong four years ago – and soon after that co-founded Ballroom Bees alongside her Danish husband, former world ballroom champion, Klaus Kongsdal. “We were living in London, I was pregnant with our first child and I wasn’t touring. We were on the couch watching Game of Thrones when my husband said, ‘I think we should move to Hong Kong’,” says the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/luxury/article/3162760/how-hollywood-dancer-katya-virshilas-teaching-ballroom-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/luxury/article/3162760/how-hollywood-dancer-katya-virshilas-teaching-ballroom-new?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Jan 2022 02:12:05 +0000 The 50th edition of the Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) should be celebrated with great fanfare for the cultural landmark that it is, but with Covid-19 travel restrictions unlikely to be lifted in time for spring 2022, on December 14 organisers announced a line-up dominated by local acts. They said they hoped Hong Kong audiences would still be enthused by the plethora of new commissions and increasingly sophisticated use of digital technology in the arts. The annual festival of performing arts... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3159716/2022-hong-kong-arts-festival-unveils-pandemic-hit-line?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3159716/2022-hong-kong-arts-festival-unveils-pandemic-hit-line?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Dec 2021 14:42:26 +0000 The Nutcracker is back – and back with a bang. Like a well-stuffed Christmas cracker, the new production by Hong Kong Ballet’s artistic director, Septime Webre, explodes with a bounty of colourful sets and costumes, virtuoso choreography, and comedy. From the moment you walk into the theatre and see how the proscenium arch has been framed in golden curlicues (“Wah!” went many children as they entered), and a scaled-down version of the Tsim Sha Tsui clock tower off the stage on one side and... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3159646/new-nutcracker-production-triumph-hong-kong-ballet-and-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3159646/new-nutcracker-production-triumph-hong-kong-ballet-and-its?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Dec 2021 09:15:22 +0000 I was born in 1988 in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, in the north of China, close to the border with North Korea. I’m an only child. My mum is a very strong woman. She wanted to give me a good life, so she worked hard designing and making clothes. When I was young, she made all my clothes. She loved dancing, especially disco dancing, and danced even when she was pregnant with me. She encouraged me to dance from a very young age and, when I was two, I began learning traditional... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3159170/hong-kong-ballets-ye-feifei-dancing-day-she?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3159170/hong-kong-ballets-ye-feifei-dancing-day-she?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Dec 2021 05:15:20 +0000 When she lost a leg to cancer at the age of 10, Shao Yue never imagined she could learn to dance. Now, she is a national wheelchair-dancing champion who hopes her story can help change perceptions of people with disabilities in China. “People think we face a lot of difficulty going out … and need to rely entirely on others to survive,” said the 34-year-old winner of several competitions. “But we actually don’t need that much help. And we don’t need everyone to look at us as outsiders,” adds... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3158893/shanghai-wheelchair-dancers-find-their-groove-china-steps-programmes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3158893/shanghai-wheelchair-dancers-find-their-groove-china-steps-programmes?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Dec 2021 08:00:04 +0000 “Never standing still” is not only Hong Kong Ballet’s motto but a phrase that one person after another employs when asked about working with artistic director Septime Webre. “It was written for me!” says Webre himself, with his characteristic hoarse chuckle. “It was a year or two before me, but it’s quite apt!” I am watching him rehearse his new production of The Nutcracker, set to premiere at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre, in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, on December 11. He is... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3158182/why-hong-kong-ballets-upcoming-nutcracker?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3158182/why-hong-kong-ballets-upcoming-nutcracker?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Dec 2021 02:15:17 +0000 Thanks to the red-hot popularity of K-pop dance covers and dance competitions like Mnet’s Street Woman Fighter, some of South Korea’s most talented dancers are enjoying their own time in the limelight. They were hardly unknown to fans in the first place, often starting out as the backup dancers and choreographers of K-pop’s brightest idols, but now the spotlight is solely on them as individual performers – and they’ve never been bigger. So who are the hottest dancers in South Korea right now? 5... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3155868/meet-k-pops-hottest-dancers-lee-jung-choreographed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3155868/meet-k-pops-hottest-dancers-lee-jung-choreographed?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Nov 2021 03:00:22 +0000 https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3155824/gender-and-climate-collide-new-beauty-billionaire-and-death-cleaning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/article/3155824/gender-and-climate-collide-new-beauty-billionaire-and-death-cleaning?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Nov 2021 06:35:30 +0000 Many of Bruce Wong’s close friends have left Hong Kong in the past couple of years. Some, he says, were fellow artists at the City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC), where Wong holds the position of rehearsal master. “Weighing up whether to leave Hong Kong is an emotional issue,” Wong says. “I have a two-year-old daughter, so I have to think about what is best for my family.” The issue of whether to stay in Hong Kong is a sensitive one, compounded by media reports in August that 90,000 people... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3155625/hong-kong-dance-company-explores-question?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3155625/hong-kong-dance-company-explores-question?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Nov 2021 08:15:20 +0000 Marisa Hamamoto wants to make sure that anyone, regardless of physical ability, feels like they can join a dance class or take part in discussions about race, gender and diversity. Hamamoto knows she has a long way to go to accomplish these goals – but the Japanese-American (earlier this year named one of People magazine’s Women Changing the World) is not one to shy away from a challenge. Her determination has been something that has previously helped her overcome her own trauma. At the age of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3149798/asian-american-dancer-marisa-hamamoto-who-founded-dance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3149798/asian-american-dancer-marisa-hamamoto-who-founded-dance?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 25 Sep 2021 16:15:19 +0000 The Sisters Mao by Gavin McCrea, pub. Scribe Gavin McCrea had literally just finished work on his excellent second novel, The Sisters Mao, when he was viciously attacked in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland. In February 2020, the much-heralded author of Mrs Engels (2015) had just left the university library, and had phoned his uncle to tell him the good news about completing the book. A gang of teenagers began shouting homophobic insults, then assaulted McCrea, breaking his nose and cheek. “It was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3149255/more-he-read-about-jiang-qing-mao-zedongs-wife-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3149255/more-he-read-about-jiang-qing-mao-zedongs-wife-more?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Sep 2021 08:15:20 +0000 Anisha Thai is as unwilling to stand still in her career as she is in her dance performances. A recent winner of Hong Kong broadcaster TVB’s competition show Dance for Life, she is a dance teacher, a social media influencer with a growing following for her Afrodance videos, a model and, as if all that weren’t enough, a civil engineer by day. She’s on a mission to increase the representation of her culture not just in Hong Kong but around the world. Her medium for accomplishing that is dance,... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3143599/tvb-dance-show-winner-anisha-thai-her-black-and-asian?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3143599/tvb-dance-show-winner-anisha-thai-her-black-and-asian?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Aug 2021 20:45:16 +0000 Get ready for an immersive and unusual dance experience with the Asian premiere of choreographer William Forsythe’s Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2 – an interactive installation in which the audience members are the performers. Developed inside the monumental industrial architecture of the Turbine Hall, of London’s Tate Modern, as well as the Venice Biennale, the installation is being exhibited at The Box, West Kowloon Freespace, Hong Kong until July 19, and features an obstacle... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3140260/dancing-museum-william-forsythes-interactive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/arts-music/article/3140260/dancing-museum-william-forsythes-interactive?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jul 2021 07:15:11 +0000 Hong Kong Ballet’s new Romeo and Juliet by artistic director Septime Webre looks set to be a crowd pleaser. Transposing the action from medieval Italy to 1960s Hong Kong is an ingenious idea which serves the dual purpose of appealing to the local audience while offering a uniquely Hong Kong product for international tours. Visually the production is stunning and there is plenty of good dancing, although the choreography is more mixed in quality. A huge amount of work has gone into recreating the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3138284/romeo-and-juliet-transposed-1960s-hong-kong-thats-vividly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3138284/romeo-and-juliet-transposed-1960s-hong-kong-thats-vividly?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jun 2021 07:43:37 +0000 Gloria Fung Gloria Fung From miniature painting and sculpting to engraving and balancing colour via mixing and matching gemstones, there’s no denying that jewellery making is an art form in its own right. Inspiration can be found in every corner of life, whether in the delicate beauty of the natural world that ends up on a canvas, or romance expressed as song and dance on stage. Just as artists inspire with their creativity, in the world of jewellery, designers put their own sparkling spin on works of art.  Van Cleef &... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/luxury/article/3135166/high-culture-breeds-high-jewellery-how-van-cleef-arpels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/luxury/article/3135166/high-culture-breeds-high-jewellery-how-van-cleef-arpels?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 28 May 2021 09:00:17 +0000 Ask anyone in the ballet world, and they will tell you that there is no luxury brand in the world that has a stronger connection to dance than Van Cleef & Arpels. Not only does the maison have a deep heritage of creating jewellery pieces inspired by dancers, its precious gemstones were also the source of inspiration for one of the world’s most famous works of dance – a ballet named Jewels, created by the legendary choreographer George Balanchine. 5 brilliantly OTT high jewellery watches for... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/luxury/article/3131033/style-edit-van-cleef-arpels-supports-hong-kong-ballets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/luxury/article/3131033/style-edit-van-cleef-arpels-supports-hong-kong-ballets?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Apr 2021 02:00:19 +0000 After a year studying dance in Britain, contemporary dance trio ShumGhostJohn flew back to Hong Kong when in-person classes were suspended because of the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020.  The next six months in Hong Kong gave them a chance to feel the pulse of an arts scene they had never truly known – and they discovered it had not escaped the political upheaval that had gripped the city for months. “Everyone’s stance towards what an artist is, what their responsibility towards society is, the... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3126895/i-thought-about-bruce-lee-how-hong-kong-artists-britain?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3126895/i-thought-about-bruce-lee-how-hong-kong-artists-britain?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 27 Mar 2021 09:15:06 +0000 When coronavirus pandemic lockdowns started in the UK exactly a year ago, British choreographer Matthew Bourne and his dance company, New Adventures, had just made several high-definition films of their ballet productions that could be made available for streaming. It has turned out to be an excellent move. The series has already been shown in Los Angeles and Russia. This month it is the turn of Hong Kong – as a highlight of this year’s Arts Festival – and New York, with a different show each... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3125446/live-ballet-filmed-high-definition-you-feel-if-you-are-there?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3125446/live-ballet-filmed-high-definition-you-feel-if-you-are-there?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Mar 2021 21:20:14 +0000 The Tai Kwun arts and heritage centre in Hong Kong’s Central district is making the most of the resumption of live performances in the city by launching a six-week arts festival on site. Called “Spotlight”, its focus is very much on local stage, dance and music talents given that overseas performers still cannot come to the city easily. Dance performance Under Line, by choreographer Rebecca Wong Pik-kei, is the most titillating by far. Wong continues to explore the power relations of desire, sex... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3124948/rope-bondage-string-quartets-arts-festival-focused-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3124948/rope-bondage-string-quartets-arts-festival-focused-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Mar 2021 06:45:09 +0000 A man from northeastern China’s Liaoning province and his mother have attracted over 7 million followers with their dancing skills. Check out their moves in the video above. https://www.scmp.com/china/mother-and-sons-dance-moves-take-internet-storm-china/article/3051540?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/china/mother-and-sons-dance-moves-take-internet-storm-china/article/3051540?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Feb 2020 10:24:58 +0000 Tan Yuanyuan is considered one of the world’s greatest ballerinas. Currently a principal dancer at the San Francisco Ballet, she is the first Chinese dancer to reach that rank at a major ballet company. Her skill and grace have earned her accolades across the world. Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV listed her among the world’s most influential Chinese people. Time magazine called her a “hero of Asia.” And Chelsea Clinton featured her in the book She Persisted Around the World: 13 Women Who Changed... https://www.scmp.com/culture/tan-yuan-yuan-chinese-ballerina-san-francisco-ballet/article/3005844?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/tan-yuan-yuan-chinese-ballerina-san-francisco-ballet/article/3005844?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Apr 2019 04:32:40 +0000 Every day, Xiong Wei travels from the outskirts of town to Xiaoman, one of Chongqing’s most beloved dance halls, to play music for his loyal fans. Despite their dwindling popularity, these dance halls maintain a loyal fan base among the older set. https://www.scmp.com/videos/meet-chongqings-most-famous-ballroom-dancing-dj/article/3000194?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/meet-chongqings-most-famous-ballroom-dancing-dj/article/3000194?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Oct 2018 13:15:06 +0000