(16^th March 2023, Hong Kong) For its upcoming 44^th dance season, City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) announces a theme that marks the transition from chilly spring to vibrant summer. Named “It’s Summer!”, the season will showcase the vitality of the season through four original contemporary dance performances and two dance festivals, enabling viewers to infuse the rhythm and dynamic of performing arts in everyday life and explore the diverse possibilities of dance. Advance booking of the Season is now available at URBTIX till 15^th May 2023 with discounts of up to 40%.

Let’s warm up––let your body slowly transit and recover, as a starting point of this glorious journey to midsummer. As CCDC Artistic Director Yuri Ng envisions it, he, artists, the company, and even Hong Kong itself are each travelling on their own journeys, experiencing their own ups and downs. Perhaps, we all need an opportunity to warm up and reset our body and mind, so that we can better embrace every twist, turn and cycle along the way, each choice made on our adventures and journeys home, and even unknown future events and encounters. “It’s Summer!” is a vacation for the body, where the scenery remains to be discovered and experienced.

The itinerary of “It’s Summer!” starts in May with its first stop: a double-bill performance of Travel of Soul Time AFTER Time & Echo in the Mirror, respectively choreographed by former CCDC dancer Terry Tsang and Resident Artist Noel Pong. “Travel” represents independent artist Terry Tsang’s experiences in his journeys after departing from the company. Travel of Soul Time AFTER Time, his creation for CCDC as its “alumnus”, once again fuses dance with his signature theme––the traditional ceremony of “Breaking Hell” –– presenting a time-bending rite of worship for the “remaining” Hong Kongers in this midsummer, as a social commentary to the current times. Meanwhile, Noel Pong, who has been with CCDC for 25 years and is about to leave her home town, creates Echo in the Mirror which is filled with her sentiments toward the city. Reflecting the fruits of her past achievements, the performance also projects her vision for her future as she moves on to the next stop in her life.

The next highlight of the Season takes us to When a Poo Woos, a dance theatre for families of ‘International Arts Carnival 2023’ that marks the ongoing collaboration between CCDC and Chun Tian Hua Hua Foundation. Dancing on this specially-designed stage full of illustrations and animations, the story invites audiences on a roller-coaster ride with the poo-man as we travel through pipes and sewers discovering love and courage.

In September, the nearly two-decades-old ‘Jumping Frames – Hong Kong International Movement-image Festival’ will take place at MCL K11 Art House and Eaton HK, led by curator Elysa Wendi and showcasing a series of moving-images that explore traces of everyday life, the environment, and body movements.

It will be followed by the ‘City Contemporary Dance Festival’ (CCDF) in November, featuring captivating performances, seminars, and cultural exchange opportunities for audiences from Hong Kong and abroad. Its opening programme, Stream of Dust is co-presented by Freespace, West Kowloon Cultural District and created by award-winning Resident Choreographer Sang Jijia. This is also his latest creation since his acclaimed work Meeting In-between Time last year. The production’s 40-strong ensemble comprises both seasoned and emerging dance artists, who will echo the inclusivity and life cycles of humanity with the body language. Meanwhile, the ‘HOTPOT East Asia Dance Platform’ will also be returning to Hong Kong after four years. Launched as a collaborative effort by CCDF, Seoul International Dance Festival and Yokohama Dance Collection, ‘HOTPOT’ will see top dance talents from China, Japan and South Korea converge in the city to celebrate and promote the dynamic diversity of dance in Asia.

The summer itinerary will end in January with the multidisciplinary production Living UP/噏 to Death. Choreographed and directed by local artist Ivanhoe Lam, the performance will feature installations, texts and videos that set its tone and scene, while musician hirsk (aka Khris Nung) along with Artistic Director Yuri Ng, Company Dramaturg Melissa Leung and dance artists embark on the “Ultimate Savasana”, bringing audience to an imaginary transit into the afterlife that can only be experienced in one’s mind and spirit.

For more details, please visit: https://qrs.ly/9gempfj

For press photos, please visit: https://qrs.ly/foemu9o

About City Contemporary Dance Company

City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC), the flagship of contemporary dance in Hong Kong, undertakes to blaze the path of contemporary dance scene with extraordinary performances representing contemporary Hong Kong culture. Founded in 1979 and directed by Yuri Ng since 2021, CCDC has presented more than 200 original works by leading choreographers, and pioneered in Asia to reimagine the possibilities of contemporary dance through innovative collaborations. Representing Hong Kong in over 270 overseas performances at the world’s foremost dance stages and festivals, CCDC is regarded as ‘the artistic soul of contemporary Hong Kong’.

City Contemporary Dance Company is supported by the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

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