The biennial New Vision Arts Festival (NVAF), celebrating its ninth edition this year, will be held from October 19 to November 18, featuring an array of pioneering shows by overseas and local performing groups. An early bird discount of 30 per cent off all full-price tickets for 10 selected programmes will be offered from today (August 6) to September 5.
Organised by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the NVAF showcases innovative interdisciplinary collaborations, new talents and cutting-edge commissions, offering a range of new experiences for audiences.
The opening programme "Tree of Codes" is a cross-boundary creative work that draws together world-class dancer Wayne McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson and musician Jamie xx in a production combining literature, sculpture, architecture and space design with performing arts.
Other shows are equally transformational in their merging of different disciplines and forms. The world's first underwater ensemble Between Music will present the Asia premiere of its underwater concert "AquaSonic", a novel integration of the arts and science that resulted from the concerted efforts of physicists, vocalists, audio engineers, neuroscientists, deep-sea divers and musical instrument makers. Choreographer Michael Keegan-Dolan has turned Tchaikovsky's classic work "Swan Lake" upside down to create the dance theatre performance "Swan Lake/Loch na hEala" with a searing original score by Slow Moving Clouds that gives voice to people on the margins of society.
Grammy and Academy Award-winner Tan Dun will lead a group of world-class vocalists including Shen Yang, Maria Chiara Chizzoni, Zhu Huiling, Wang Kang and Tan Weiwei, as well as instrumentalists Batubagen and Chen Yining, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, and the International Choir Academy Lübeck of Germany, in the Asia premiere of "Buddha Passion", a tribute to the legends of Dunhuang.
Composed by noted American Chinese composer Du Yun, "Angel's Bone" is a powerful combination of opera, electronic rock and cabaret that spotlights the dark problem of human trafficking. Du won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for this work.
The immersive theatre work "The Living Room" directed by Thomas Richards, a disciple of Jerzy Grotowski, will break the boundary between performer and spectator. Richards will also relive Fyodor Dostoevsky's words through comedy, tragedy, the grotesque and ancient songs of tradition in "The Underground: A Response to Dostoevsky".
"Negotiation" is a cross-cultural dialogue between the royal Khon dance tradition and street hip-hop by the award-winning Khon artist Pichet Klunchun and Laotian dancer-choreographer Olé Khamchanla. Hong Kong choreographer Daniel Yeung will bring together local artists and a lion dance team for the experimental multimedia lion dance theatre work "Guan Yu's Ride of 1,000 Miles" that combines lion dance with contemporary dance.
With incandescent lamps taking centre stage, "LightSpace" is a production of Sadler's Wells Theatre created by internationally renowned British lighting designer Michael Hulls, taking visitors on a unique immersive journey through light and shadow.
Tickets for the NVAF early bird offer are available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk) from today until September 5. For credit card telephone bookings, please call 2111 5999.
For programme enquiries, please call 2370 1044 or visit www.newvisionfestival.gov.hk.
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