Celebrating a milestone

Since taking office in April, one of her most immediate tasks has been to ensure the smooth delivery of the academy's 40th anniversary celebrations. Under her leadership, the School of Dance Summer Performances will see a breakthrough when they are staged later this month. For the first time in the HKAPA's history, students of its dance school's three disciplines — ballet, Chinese and contemporary dance — have come together for a new production, Into the Blue, that fuses elements of all three genres into a seamless new form. Chan invited School of Dance alumnus Ricky Hu Songwei — now resident choreographer at the Hong Kong Ballet — and his wife, Mai Jingwen, who specializes in Chinese dance, to choreograph the piece.

"This new work, while celebrating the uniqueness of each dance discipline, could be a catalyst for preparing our students for diverse performing roles — so that they are able to fit into any dance company anywhere on the global stage," Chan says.

Fittingly, the institute's annual musical — What the Buddha Said, playing this week — has not been conceived on a grander scale before. Directed by Tony Wong, the piece revisits the journeys of some of the students who have passed through the HKAPA's gates over the last 40 years through the lens of the classic Chinese 16th-century adventure epic Journey to the West.

Around 200 students and alumni — including celebrity artists — have been roped in to contribute to the production. Chan says that while musicals have always been a collaborative effort, "this is really the first time all six of the academy's schools play a major role in making the piece".