West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong has signed a "Memorandum of Understanding" on a Dance Exchange and Collaboration with UK dance company Studio Wayne McGregor, running from 2017 to 2020.
This collaboration will create exchange programmes each year including artist residencies, studio workshops, research, talks, forums, classes, seminars and online exchanges. In the first year, there will be a dance residency for two Hong Kong dance artists and a co-commissioned project, Autobiography by McGregor.
The Studio will support two Hong Kong dance artists, Li Han and He Yongning (Una), to be mentored by Wayne McGregor for a three-week dance residency, which has resulted from the New Works Forum that WKCDA presented with the Studio Wayne McGregor in October 2015 in Hong Kong.
Autobiography will be a new full-length work by McGregor in which the choreographer will have his entire genome sequenced by world-leading geneticists, tracing back his ancestral history and the past of our human species. It will première at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre from 4 to 7 October 2017, with a Hong Kong première in 2019/2020.
Anna CY Chan, Head of Dance, Performing Arts, WKCDA said, “the Memorandum of Understanding with the Studio Wayne McGregor is yet another exciting and excellent initiative in performing arts that WKCDA has been championing. The partnership strengthens the position of dance in Hong Kong and its relationship with leading dancehouses in the world.
"I look forward to building more relationships with world renowned choreographers, theatres and dance organisations in preparation for the opening of Freespace in 2019 and Lyric Theatre Complex in 2022.”