Hong Kong Ballet went for the bold as some of the best dancers from across Asia, together with a lead from Canada, got together for Stephen Jefferies' stage adaptation for Hong Kong's very own tale, The World of Suzie Wong. P.Ramakrishnan tried to match steps with the production's principal dancers and choreographer, as they tried not to break a leg during rehearsals.
There are neither girls in fluffy tutus nor men in tights in this dance adaptation of Richard Mason's The World of Suzie Wong. In Stephen Jefferies adaptation, women in tight cheongsams and high heels take over the stage. While men in suits and sailor uniforms jazz it up with nary a leotard, men's stocking or dance belt in sight.
As preparations are in full force leading up to opening night, the air is thick with anticipation in the labyrinth, monochrome annals of the rehearsal halls at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, in Tsim Sha Tsui. Mirrored walls brocaded with dance bars, high ceilings and tape decks speckle the otherwise bare rooms as dancers stretch and twist their bodies in pretzel shapes.
"This isn't as difficult to do as a pure classical ballet is," says danseuse Faye Leung, who essays the titular role. "Traditional ballets are very, very precise and there's no room for error. If we make a slight mistake in this dance, no one will notice, but in traditional ballet, it becomes so obvious. But there are other difficulties in this ballet - dancing in high-heel shoes and cheongsams. It's really unsafe, so slippery! With a tutu and a leotard, they flow with the body and aren't cumbersome."
Just watching the unit perfect their positions, pirouettes, and pas-de-deux, it's easy to spot Leung and see why she's got the lead role. She has that certain magical essence that makes her stand out in a crowd, a quality that has helped her land nearly all the leads in the past decade. Roles have included turns in classics such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Romeo and Juliet. So exquisite are her skills that the roles have created especially for her by a variety of choreographers; roles such as Suzie Wong, Princess Jade in Legend of the Great Archer and Tango Ballet Tango (Stephen Jefferies), Madame Butterfly and Turandot (Natalie Weir), Valeria in Spartacus (Irek Mukhamedov), Lady White in The White Snake (Domy Reiter-Soffer), and Dreams of
Tenderness and Solitude (David Allan).
Well of course she's limber and doe-eyed and has more grace than God intended to distill down to one petite frame of a body, and as she hops onto the table for the interview, clad in leggings, stretching out her long limbs, she has the countenance of a teen, not her 28 year-old self. But the body reminds her, she says, of her age. "It hurts. I'm in pain almost all the time!" she says revealing all the injuries incurred during the-making-of. "Big time injuries during this production, stress fracture - I had three months off and my foot has still not recovered fully. And I can feel the pain, but when I'm dancing, it somehow disappears. I feel nothing but the spirit of dancing. I've sprained my tendons and my arms hurt but somehow when I'm on the stage, it doesn't! There's no nervousness either. I've never been nervous in my life - since I was a little girl, I wanted to be on stage, to dance before a live audience. I look forward to it!"
Her onstage partner Bengt Jorgen, who dances the role of the gwailo in love with Suzie, agrees, "I've been dancing for the last 20 years and never got nervous and it's funny that as I get older, I do get that inkling of doubt. There isn't so much of that in this show because there's confidence. We've been training for a long time so we're well prepared." With a grin, Leung continues, "The only time I get nervous is when the doctor shows me a needle. I've been getting shots for pain and I'm allergic to them (she unfurls her socks to reveal her slender legs, dotted with red marks). Yeah, I hate needles but make me dance on stage alone in front of thousands of people - no problem. One man with one needle and I could faint."
Needless to say, the dancers are in incredible shape. The silhouette of Leung's legs jump out from the posters around town and I wonder if there's a particular dancer's diet that she's on? "I'm not thin, but I do have to watch what I eat because I don't want to trouble my dancing partner. I can carry my weight around fine, but then he has to do it too - quite literally and I don't want him to go 'Oww' every time he has to carry me."
With an easy grin, Jorgen, who also heads the Ballet Jorgen Canada, says "Faye has been a wonderful dancing partner and she's very gifted. I've been dancing for a long time and I didn't think that I'd want to take on the lead in a production anymore, but when the opportunity arose to work with this team, under the guidance of Stephen (Jefferies, Artistic Director), I agreed just for the experience of it, of coming to Hong Kong, where I have performed before, and see what kind of challenge it is to work for another production team. It's nice to be just the dancer and not to have the added stress of all that a production entails."
For someone of Jorgen's calibre (a graduate of the Royal Swedish Ballet, resident choreographer of George Brown College, Artistic Director of Ballet Jorgen, recipient of the Clifford E.Lee Choreography award), does playing secondary character to the title role seem like misstep? "The appeal was that when I read the story, I liked the part, the character I now perform," he explains as we walk around the Cultural Centre while the cast and crew break for lunch. "In a sense it's as much his story because he's the narrator and it's his point of view. And this is such a great production and essentially it's a story of Hong Kong, so it had to be done here in this city too which was an appeal for me to come over from Canada to do this. Being an observer, it's so interesting to see the different take that Stephen has on this show, and how he's doing it differently from what I thought."
As in sync as they are on stage, the leads even chorus what they enjoy about dancing too. "Rehearsals. Refining a dance and the creative aspect is the best part. Performing and having an audience is great too, but a greater sense of depth to the artistry of dance comes during production."
There's a comfort and camaraderie between the 43-member troupe that reveals not just the strenuous efforts put into the production, but the element of fun they have with it too. Discloses Leung, "I don't enjoy watching other dance shows at all, but what I really like to see is rehearsals, what's not on stage - everything that's done backstage, how they work out the routine, how they master it, how the flaws are covered, that's where all the real dancing is. By the time they are on stage, it is all done and people are going through the motion of what they're learned, but as a dancer, it's the learning that interests me. I love to ask questions. When I'm rehearsing and see myself, I ask 'Why is this step not working?"
Though she doesn't have the time to go and see other productions, Leung confesses she's enjoyed a few movies, "Most dance-based movies are fun but are not particularly realistic, but I did like Centre Stage and the one with the kid, Billy Elliot. I must say I also realy liked Honey. I heard Jessica Alba used to do ballet, and that girl can move! The movie was a fun look at the Hip-Hop and R&B music video scene, but it dealt with what all dancers go through - the training, the hard work, the long hours, just in a different format!"
When choreographer/director Stephen Jefferies walks into the room, people fall into place like a scattered puzzle which suddenly creates a unified picture. We stand aside and chat, "The production premiered for the first time last March, but when we put it up again I got the chance to make adjustments. I took time to fix things and get rid of some things and to make it all a bit tighter. It's a big production and we hope to tour with this and really show the world some of the best dances and dancers from Asia."
As the clicks of the high-heels punctuate the dance floor, I snitch on the dancers and tell Jefferies that they've suffered for their art by dancing in heels, "The dancers are in high heels and pointed shoes and I once toyed with the idea of making them wear one high heel on one foot, and a ballet shoe in the other - just to torture them!" laughs Jefferies, "I'm kidding of course!"
Changes were made from the film and the novel, to fit the stage format. "When the story first came out, it was quite controversial. A white man, a gwailo, in love with a prostitute and getting married to her, there was noise about that at first but it's not so dramatic anymore. Interracial couples are not a big deal at all and to heighten the drama, we've changed parts in this production. It's been quite a challenge as we've incorporated some innovative styles, and mixed-up dance forms. It's pretty experimental and not as disciplined as classical ballets are. There's a bit more freedom for the dancers."
So what's the barometer of success or failure for a ballet? The box office? Reviews? Audience reaction?
Says Jeffries, "I've been working in production for so long and when I sit down in the audience, does my spine tingle during the show? Then I know how good or bad it is. It's so important for me to see it all and say, I wasn't bored! That's the key."
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