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UK dance innovator Hofesh Shechter and his dance company will deliver a pulsating fusion of classical and rock music this month in the programme "Political Mother: New Vision Arts Festival Uncut" to enthral Hong Kong audiences.
Charged with combative power and emotional tension, productions of "Political Mother" have swept through arts festivals in many countries including the UK, France, Germany and Australia. Dancers raise their fists and roar, move between roles of criminals and warriors, and appear in the shadow of a dictatorial figure who whips up emotions like a rock star. With Shechter's self-composed score juxtaposing classical music with driving rock, the production sculpts its furious elements and ever-shifting sequences into a profound contemporary dance experience that is relentless, intense and explosive.
Shechter has created new sections for the Hong Kong performances, which will feature talented local musicians alongside Hofesh Shechter Company's dancers and band members.
"Political Mother" was Hofesh Shechter Company's first full-length work, and it premiered at the Brighton Festival and won five-star reviews in the major national press in the UK. The UK's Daily Telegraph hailed it as being "as thrilling a knitting of dance, music and spectacle as a British theatre can ever have seen" while the Sunday Times wrote that "Hofesh Shechter's rock-god energy and raw power have made him dance's hottest property".
Having rocketed to stardom on the international dance stage, Hofesh Shechter has become one of the UK's most explosive choreographers in recent years. Born in Israel and a graduate from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, he is a choreographer and a creator of music scores all in one. He arrived in the UK in 2002 and later made his debut as choreographer, dancer and composer with the award-winning "Fragments". In 2007, three major dance venues in London - the Place, Southbank Centre and Sadler's Wells - collaborated to commission Shechter to create "In Your Rooms". It won the Critics' Circle National Dance Award for Best Choreography (Modern) in 2008, a feat that catapulted him to the forefront as the most sought-after choreographer in the UK. In 2008, Shechter founded his own Hofesh Shechter Company and took it on a world tour.
"Political Mother: New Vision Arts Festival Uncut" is the opening programme of the New Vision Arts Festival (NVAF). It will be held at 7.30pm from October 16 to 18 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Grand Theatre.
Tickets priced at $480, $400, $300, $200 and $120 are now available at URBTIX. Half-price tickets are available for full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 and above, people with disabilities and their minders, and Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients. Other booking discounts of up to 20 per cent are available. Furthermore, for each purchase of full-price tickets for "Political Mother: New Vision Arts Festival Uncut" and "RICE" together, there will be a 20 per cent discount.
Hofesh Shechter will also give a talk on his pathway to creativity through choreography on October 18 (Saturday) at 4pm at AC1, Level 4, Administration Building of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The talk will be conducted in English. Admission is free. Limited seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The NVAF, organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, will run from October 16 to November 16, showcasing an array of innovative and outstanding performances that cross cultural and disciplinary borders. Programme brochures are available at URBTIX outlets or at the festival website www.newvisionfestival.gov.hk.
For programme enquiries, please call 2370 1044. For telephone credit card bookings, please call 2111 5999. Internet bookings can be made at www.urbtix.hk.
Ends/Friday, October 10, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:56
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