© Hong Kong Ballet Group HK Ballet Group website Natasha Rogai reviews An edited version of this article appeared in the South China Morning Post.

The Hong Kong Ballet Group was founded in 1964 by a group of ballet teachers who wanted a way to give their pupils more exposure, and the oppportunity to perform in public. Since then, thousands of young dancers have appeared in the non-profit-making association’s productions and taken part in its workshops, while some gifted students have been awarded scholarships enabling them to study abroad and in some cases pursue ballet careers.

Forty-two years ago ballet was in its infancy in Hong Kong, but now the situation is very different, with numerous private ballet schools, professional training available at the HK Academy for Performing Arts (APA), and a professional ballet company of international standard. As HKBG prepared its 2006 production, Giselle, I asked its Director, Yuri Ng, what role the association has to play today.

“That’s the question. We have been looking at ourselves, assessing where we stand. I see us as providing a link between the professional company and the community. APA provides full time professional training, but before you can get into the school there’s no opportunity to dance, even if you’re really talented. What we do is professional – the kids have to take it seriously. That’s why we invite top notch principals to perform in our productions – so that the kids have someone to look up to, and be inspired to choose dance as a career. We give them the opportunity to experience what a full-scale professional production entails, what it’s like to rehearse every day, so that teaches them what being a ballet dancer is like.”

Ng himself is a good example of the group’s effectiveness. A former winner of the Genée Gold Medal who went on to dance with National Ballet of Canada, he performed with HKBG as a boy, and was awarded a scholarship which helped him to embark on a successful career as dancer and choreographer.

The full-scale productions now take place once every two years, with a ballet competition in the alternate years. This was introduced by Ng with the purpose of giving Hong Kong ballet students of all ages something to aim for, and raising general standards. For the productions, auditions are held in April and participants will rehearse daily from the beginning of July until the performances in August.

Watching a run-through of Giselle, I was impressed to see that the production follows an authentic text of the ballet, and makes little concession to the youth and inexperience of the performers. Ng confirms that, while HKBG sets out to give as many talented students as possible an opportunity to perform, “the key word is ‘talented’ – that’s why we hold auditions.” The aim is not to have dozens of children on stage for the sake of it, but to develop and motivate selected participants to work and dance in a professional way.

In fact, the biggest difficulty has not been mastering the steps, but style and presentation. Ng attributes this to the syllabus-driven teaching which is the norm in local ballet schools. It seems that in ballet, as in other areas of education in Hong Kong, the focus is more on passing exams than encouraging pupils to use their imagination and develop their individuality. Happily, HKBG has a strong team producing Giselle to give the young dancers guidance. Ng is responsible for the overall artistic direction, including the stage design, while the dancers are being drilled in the choreography and coached in their roles by former National Ballet of China star Tang Min, who has had a distinguished career as a dancer and teacher in China, Canada and the US, and is currently working with Guangzhou Ballet. Tang’s husband, Zhao Min Hwa, who lectures in ballet at the APA, is providing additional support to ensure that the version of the ballet is authentic and accurate.
 

Perhaps predictably in a society as dollar-driven as Hong Kong, it seems that the ‘one for all and all for one’ spirit which inspired the founding of HKBG has waned, with some larger ballet schools not allowing their pupils to audition for the group’s productions. Ng is philosophical about this, recognizing that there may be a clash of schedules with a school’s own annual production, or that teachers may be concerned about losing pupils to competitors. Nonetheless, it seems regrettable that students should be deprived of the opportunity to take part in a professional-level production, and that HKBG (which as Ng says “does not take a cent” from the participants, and whose only goal is to foster excellence) should not be able to choose the best from all our local ballet students.

In contrast to Hong Kong, Mainland China practises a system whereby the state sets out to identify and nurture talented dancers, athletes and others from an early age. The guest artists from National Ballet of China who will appear in Giselle, ballerina Zhu Yan and her partner Yu Bo, told me they were both picked out at the age of 10 and sent to the national ballet academy to be trained as professional dancers.

While on a human level there may be doubts about sending children away from their families, or dictating their choice of career, the system unquestionably succeeds in producing a large number of outstanding dancers, in China as in the former Soviet Union or in Cuba. Both Zhu and Yu are shining examples of this, Zhu in particular being a world-class ballerina who would be an asset to any company

It was a privilege to watch their commitment and professionalism - principals often mark their roles in rehearsal instead of dancing them in full, but Zhu’s Giselle was a complete performance, not only dancing, but acting this most dramatic of classical roles with detail and intensity. It was no surprise when she told me that she loves dancing Giselle, and feels the part very deeply. What did surprise me was that this is only the second time she and Yu will dance the ballet together, as their partnering and acting were so assured, but Zhu points out that “We dance together in a lot of other ballets, like La Sylphide, so the partnership is already a good one.” While she herself has danced Giselle for some time, Yu only made his debut as Albrecht at their first performance together last June. Yu’s heartfelt acting does not present the standard interpretation of Albrecht as a wicked seducer, and he confirmed that “To me, Albrecht is not a bad person – he never intends to harm Giselle and is full of regret for what happens.”

Rehearsing in a gym with an amateur group is not what dancers of this calibre are used to, but both were very positive about working with the student dancers, commenting that “They’re not professionals, but they work really hard and make so much effort.” One dancer singled out for praise was Lam Wing Yi, who graduated from the APA last year and is now seeking a job. Lam will dance Myrthe, and mastered this hugely demanding role impressively well in both technique and interpretation. The guest artists’ dedication is demonstrated by their exhausting schedule : after 3 days in Hong Kong, they were returning to Beijing, then performing in the US before coming back for the Giselle peformances. When I asked if they had any holiday, they laughed and told me that the summer break for National Ballet of China would be from 14 to 23 August – when they will be here to perform with HKBG instead of having a much-needed rest.

Ng is full of praise for their attitude “I really take my hat off to the principals – they’re very tired, but they have been very professional, and very helpful….We want to show the kids that Chinese can make good dancers too, to give them role models. We knew how good the principals were, but we didn’t know how they would react with the kids – and they’ve turned out to be just what we prayed for.”