© hkdc recent HKDC reviews more Natasha Rogai reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months) A version of this review appeared previously in the South China Morning Post.

Addressing issues such as their feelings about Hong Kong and the nature of Chinese dance, Hong Kong Spring is as much theatre as dance, with extensive use of dialogue which the dancers handle with commendable ease.

Yeung’s influence shows in the humour which permeates the show – a welcome departure for HKDC, whose productions tend to take themselves too seriously. In one delightfully tongue-in-cheek sequence, a text giving the company’s history is recited by different dancers in turn, acting out the words with a stream of visual puns (no language lends itself to punning like Cantonese and the scene’s title Hong Kong”Mo” “Do” Tuen is itself a play on the company’s name). In another, Horses Keep On Racing, two male dancers (Yang Yun Tao and Mi Tao), carrying the horse whips used in Chinese opera to signify that characters are riding, compete in an increasingly spectacular succession of opera-based movements with a comic twist.

People Keep On Dancing is a hilarious portrayal of the mishaps and misteps involved in choreographing, as Yang and Xie Yin struggle to create a duet, complete with pratfalls, near-strangulation and Xie’s unavailing attempts to take her turn at lifting the tall, powerfully built Yang. Later in the programme, the sombre Lover’s Tears closes with Yang and Xie dancing together – and in a truly magical moment, the audience finds itself watching the duet whose painful birthpangs it had witnessed shortly before, transformed into a thing of beauty, with Xie tenderly carrying her partner on her back at the end.

This thought-provoking, entertaining show is a tribute to the talent and enthusiasm of all concerned.

A version of this review appeared previously in the South China Morning Post.