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Award Panelists

Production Categories Panel
Co-Chair
Allen LAM

 

Allen is an accomplished choreographer, movement director and educator.  He is a graduate of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and obtained his MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.  He has performed with several major dance companies in Hong Kong and the United States including the Hong Kong Ballet and ODC San Francisco. In 2006, Allen was given the Hong Kong Dance Award for organizing and staging an influential bilateral exchange project Dance Wide HKNY.  With the Hong Kong Ballet, he served as the artistic director for the educational project “Live Your Dream” received the Hong Kong Dance Award in 2014. With Chung Ying Theatre, he choreographed for the physical theatre production “Rashomon”(2018) which won Outstanding Production of the Year at the 28th Hong Kong Drama Awards.
 
As choreographer, Allen was a co-founder of DanceArt established in 1995 and received the Asia Cultural Council Fellowship to conduct dance research programs in New York in the same year.  Later in 2004, he founded Muse Motion His approach is uniquely collaborative, partnering with numerous renowned theatre directors, visual artists, designers, musicians to create works in dance, physical theatre, site specific theatre, commercial events, fashion shows and art installations.     
He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance.

 

Natasha Rogai

 

Originally from London, Natasha Rogai worked for many years in Paris and has lived in Hong Kong since 1997. She formerly served on Hong Kong Ballet’s Audience Development Committee and The Friends of Hong Kong Ballet Committee, and has been a member of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance Executive Committee from 2009 to 2020. In 2016, Natasha received the Hong Kong Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Services to Dance. She is now the dance critic of the South China Morning Post and the Hong Kong correspondent of Dancing Times.

 

Panelist
William Chan

 

William Chan is a performing arts critic and media producer from Hong Kong. He has been writing reviews and feature articles on theatre, dance and visual arts since 1998, which were published on various media channel in Hong Kong and Macau.

 

After getting his B.A.(Hon.) degree in Languages & Communication from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and MFA degree in Media Design & Technology from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, William completed a double MA degree in International Performance Research awarded by the University of Warwick (UK) and University of Arts in Belgrade (Serbia) in 2015.

 

He is now working as a Lecturer at a tertiary institute and a judging panelist of Hong Kong Dance Awards, Hong Kong Theatre Libre awards and IATC(HK) Critics Awards. He is also an Examiner in Drama, Dance and Arts Criticism of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

 

Anna Cheng

Anna Cheng is the Performing Arts (Dance) Producer of the West Kowloon Cultural District. She is responsible for producing cultural exchange and partnership projects, creative research and new works development programmes, learning and participation events. She is also the Examiner in Dance and Arts Administration of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

 

Before joining the District, Anna collaborated with various major arts organizations as independent producer and project manager, including the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong Arts Centre, to curate and produce local and overseas dance, theatre and music projects, festivals and tours. As a dance critic, her articles were published in local publications and Taiwan’s Performing Arts Review (1998 – 2014). She was also a member of the Asian Producers’ Platform (2014 – 2017).

 

Chong Chan Po (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

Artistic Director and choreographer of La P en V Innovative Dance Platform. His choreographic works include Imprint of Life, Au-delà du Temps and Sans Voix • Cent Voies. He is currently Panel Examiner of Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He was a lead dancer of the Hong Kong Dance Company (1991-2009). He also served as Training Master, Assistant Rehearsal Master and Coordinator for various major dance performances in the Company. He has been lecturer and guest choreographer at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. In 2016, he was invited to take part in the Wave Rising Series Dance Festival in New York. In 2019, his work, Au-delà du Temps was invited to present in the 19th Meet In Beijing Arts Festival and Jockey Club New Arts Power 2020/2021.

Daisy Chu

 

As a senior art and cultural editor and critic, Daisy Chu has been covering arts and culture for many years, for publications including CrossOver MagazineHong Kong Economic Journal, Ming Pao Daily NewsXpressions Magazine, and organisations such as the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, City Contemporary Dance Company, Hong Kong Dance Company, Asian Cultural Council, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, International Association of Theatre Critics (Hong Kong), and the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority. She also writes regularly about dance and theatre for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong.

 

Daisy is currently an Examiner in Dance and an advisor for Arts Criticism for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, a member of the Dance and Multi-Arts Panel of the LCSD, and a panelist for the Hong Kong Dance Awards, Hong Kong Drama Awards, IATC (HK) Critics Awards and Hong Kong Theatre Libre awards.

 

Maurice Lai

 

Born and raise in Hong Kong, live in Tainan. One of Hong Kong and Taiwan most active directors of dance video art. A MFA graduate of the School of Film and TV at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. A slash life wandering between video, dance, opera and food culture. In 2020, he set up HoShunKing Artistic Workshop in Taiwan to engage in video creation. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor of School of Dance, Taipei National University of the Arts and College of Arts, Tainan University of Technology, sharing dance video art. He received from Hong Kong Dance Alliance, The Hong Kong Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Video and Photography for Dance in 2015 and Outstanding Visual Design in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he received from City Contemporary Dance Company, City Contemporary Dance Laureate. In 2023, his dance film 'bulabulay mun?' won the 1st Cloud Stage Award (dance category) in Taiwan.

 

Lai Tak Wai

 

Lai Tak-wai graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2002, majoring in modern dance. He was awarded several scholarships there and represented the Academy to perform overseas. He later pursued further studies at the National Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Paris.


Lai had taught at the Guangdong Dance School and CCDC Dance Centre. He was a full-time dancer at Cloud Gate Dance Theatre in 2005 and at City Contemporary Dance Company from 2008 to 2014. 

 

In 2014, he received the Hong Kong Dance Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer for his performance in In Search of the Grand View Garden. He was presented the Hong Kong Dance Award in 2018 again for Outstanding Choreography with his full-length solo choreography work So Low. Wai is currently an independent choreographer and a freelance dancer.

 

 

Yoki Lai

 

Yoki Lai is a scenic and costume designer, participating in over 100 productions for various local troupes and overseas companies. She has been the Resident Designer for Chung Ying Theatre Company in Hong Kong, Artist-in-Residence and part-time lecturer at the HKAPA School of Theatre and Entertainment Arts. She was also the scenic designer of The Fortune Global Forum in China for Fortune Live Media USA from 2017 to 2019.

 

She gained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with first class honors and Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University in the USA, where she was awarded the Donald and Zorka Oenslager Award in Stage Design. In 2007, she was awarded the Fellowship from Asian Cultural Council. She also won The Best Set Design and The Best Make-up & Image Design at the Hong Kong Drama Awards, as well as The Best Stage Effect at the Hong Kong Theatre Libre.

 

Leung Po Wing (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

Leung Po Wing is a composer, sound designer and sound engineer. He obtained his Associate Degree from Hong Kong Baptist University College of International Education in 2007, majoring in Liberal Study (Music). He then obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2011, major in sound design. Since his graduation, Leung has dedicated himself to the field of theatre sound design, collaborating with numerous arts organizations in Hong Kong. In 2013 Leung co-found Heteroglossia, exploring the possibilities of sound, lighting, video, and various media in performing arts. Leung has been honored with the Hong Kong Dance Awards for Outstanding Sound Design and Music Composition three times between 2018 and 2022. Currently, Leung serves as a lecturer in School of Theatre & Entertainment Arts of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

 

Li Yongjing

 

Li Yongjing has profound experience in performance and choreography. Graduated from the HKAPA with distinction in 2002, majoring in modern dance, Li was among the first to be awarded Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the Academy in 2008. Upon graduation, she taught in the Modern Dance Diploma Programme at the Guangdong Dance School. In 2004, she joined the Odyssey Dance Theatre in Singapore as Artist-in-Residence and participated in performances with various local and overseas performing art organizations.

 

She received the Hong Kong Dance Awards twice for her performance in Interiors in 2001 and for the duet The Moment I Saw It in 2012, which she choreographed and performed in. She is currently the Lecturer of Contemporary Dance and MFA advisor at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA).

 

Wong Hang Fai

 

Wong Hang Fai has been a professional in the Hong Kong dance industry since the 1980s. He was a founding member of the Hong Kong Dance Company, acted as the protagonist or lead dancer in numerous large-scale dance dramas, and had been an actor at the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre. He travelled overseas for dance cultural exchange activities and participated in performances in different art festivals.

 

Wong had instructed the Oriental Dance Society of The University of Hong Kong, the Dance Society at the School of Continuing Education of City University of Hong Kong, and as a guest lecturer of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He has also been an Examiner of Hong Kong Arts Development Council to assist in the adjudication of arts funding applications, an assessor of the projects supported by HKADC, as well as a member of the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards Assessment Panel for Dance (Artist of the Year and Award for Young Artist) for many years to date.

 

 

Wu Fei-fei

 

As a former principal dancer with the Hong Kong Ballet, Wu Fei-fei has nearly 20 years of professional performance experience and achievements in dance. She excelled in the international Lausanne Ballet competition and the National “Taoli Cup” Ballet competition.

 

Wu joined the Hong Kong Ballet as a member of corps de ballet in 2003 and was then promoted to principal dancer in 2012. In the same year, she was awarded Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer at the Hong Kong Dance Awards, and was later nominated for the Ten Outstanding New Hong Kong Young Persons in 2015. She now devotes herself to teaching and popularizing dance education in Hong Kong.

 

 

Gigi Yiu (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

Gigi Yiu is a multifaceted artist, educator, show director, and performer with more than 20 years of experience in the arts and culture sector, both locally and internationally. She is the founder of MOVIN'GRID, a versatile space in Central that supports and showcases various forms of artistic expression and collaboration. Since 2017, Gigi has curated over 50 events and artist workshops at MOVIN'GRID.
 
Gigi has an Advanced (Honours) Certificate in Tap Dance from the UK and has received training in France and New York. She has worked as a full-time actress with the Shiki Theatre Company, touring nationally with the popular Broadway musical "Crazy for You." In 2014, She was awarded the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship and completed her master's degree at the Guildford School
of Acting in the UK and interned as an assistant movement director for Hollywood actress Kim Cattrall and actors trained by Jacques Lecoq.
 
Gigi has garnered recognition for her notable roles in musicals and has been nominated for prestigious theatre awards in the category of "Best Actress." She currently serves as a part-time Dance Lecturer at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and contributes as the Dance Vice Chairperson of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund awardees association. Recently, she worked as an executive producer for a gala performance, showcasing her continued passion and dedication to the performing arts industry.
Eddy Zee (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

Eddy Zee is a very dynamic man, he is a producer and actor. Over the past two decades, he produced over 200 renowned works for different arts festivals, dance, and theatre companies. In 2016, he joined an exciting project—a new arts hub in Hong Kong named Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts. During his period at Tai Kwun, he created The Spotlight Festival, Tai Kwun Circus Play and Asian Dance Film Platform for local and international artists showcasing their works. In 2022 November, he joined No Limits — an exciting festival platform for inclusive arts co-presented by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to extend his vision and mission about the value of performing arts for the community. 

Community Categories Panel
Chair
Stella Lau

 

Stella Lau was born and raised in Hong Kong. Lau entered the Hong Kong Academy of Ballet for full-time professional training in 1982 and was awarded twice the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship in 1983 and 1984. Upon graduation, she began her performing career with the Hong Kong Ballet and in 1990 became the first homegrown dancer promoted to principal in the company’s history.

 

After ten years as a professional dancer, Lau furthered her studies at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1995 where she graduated from the BFA (Hons) program in dance with first-class honors. She was later appointed as part-time lecturer and tutor at the School of Dance and the Interdisciplinary & Liberal Arts Department of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts respectively . In 2003 Lau was showcased in the Hong Kong Dance Hall of Fame. She completed the MFA in Dance program in 2010 and is currently a full-time ballet lecturer at the School of Dance.

 

 

Panelist
Chung Ching (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

An experienced dance educator in Hong Kong with rich teaching experience, actively promoting dance exchanges in the community. Currently serving as a reviewer for the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, a board member of the Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association, a member of the Performing Arts Panel (Dance and Cross-media Arts) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, and a standing member of the Association of Hong Kong Dance Organization, making professional contributions and support to the development of dance in Hong Kong.

 

Ronly Kong

 

Ronly Kong is experienced in youth dance education and choreography, creating around 125 dance works for more than 6000 young dancers in over 28 years. She graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1989 and later received the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship in 1989 – 1992, B.F.A. magna cum laude in modern dance from the University of Utah in the United States, PIP School Certificate in Performing Arts and Philippe Gaulier Master Workshop Certificate.

 

Ronly has been a dancer, choreographer, teacher and programme curator for various local and overseas organizations. Since 1995 she has been invited as the adjudicator of the Schools Dance Festival’s Modern Dance section and attained the Choreography Award in the 34th to 54th Festival. In November 2016, she was invited by the Korean Arts and Culture Education Centre to be the lecturer and dance instructor for the KACES International Arts Education Workshop. Currently, she is the Outreach Affairs Manager of CCDC Dance Centre.

 

Medina Lau

 

Born and educated in Hong Kong, Medina started dancing since junior high school. Hand-picked by Willy Tsao, founder of City Contemporary Dance Company, she set off her professional dance career in 1984. She went on to join Tanz Theatre of Freiburg as soloist in Germany; and as principal and guest artist at Norrdans in Sweden.

 

As the producer and collaborator for the project “A Cross Cultural Dialogue between Finland & Hong Kong”, she choreographed and danced with Aurinkoballetti from Turku, Finland. She also travelled extensively for dance collaborations and research projects in England, Europe and Canada. In Hong Kong, she founded "dancelsewhere", a dance troupe presenting creative modern dance.

 

Besides freelancing on dance projects, she studies Chinese martial arts for the pursuit of movement and has become an accredited teacher of "YiQuan". She also works as a professional computer graphic designer for renowned international design corporations. In recent years, she has been focusing on research about contact improvisation and somatic movement.

Melissa Leung (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

 

Melissa LEUNG, is currently the Company Dramaturg of CCDC.

 

She was the Assistant Artistic Director (Education) of CCDC from 2018 to 2021. She directed a three-year “Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Literacy and Learning Project”, funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. This project was awarded the 14th Hong Kong Arts Development Award Certificate of Merit (Non-School Division) for Arts Education and the Outstanding Dance Education or Community Dance Award at the Hong Kong Dance Award 2020.

 

A very all-rounded theatre practitioners, Melissa is known for her intense and exquisite physical acting. She cooperated with different dancing organizations and theatre associations, including Theatre du Pif, On & On Theatre Workshop, Unlock Dancing Plaza and Littlebreath Creative Workshop. Melissa received the award for Performer of the Year at the IATC(HK) Critics Awards 2018.

 

David Liu

 

David Liu began formal training in both dance and figure skating by the age of eight. He attended New York City Ballet's School of American Ballet (SAB) on full scholarship. He went on to hone his skills as a competitive figure skater and competed at the Olympic Games representing his native country, Taiwan.

 

David has produced, choreographed, and performed in numerous dance performances and skating exhibitions and was Co-Artistic Director of Ice Theatre of New York. Choreographically, he has also worked with various dance companies. In 2016, David created and directed a two-year touring show in Europe for Holiday on Ice. 

 

David's continual interest in expanding his understanding of dance and movement led him to live in Israel to study Gaga and completed the teacher training course in 2012. He went on to earn an MFA degree in dance and an M.A. degree in Counseling. Currently, he teaches Gaga at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and maintains his practice as a mental health therapist.

 

Irene Lo (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

A former coryphée of Hong Kong Ballet who has performed numerous lead roles. Currently, she is the Associate Director of Training for HKB’s Classical Ballet Training Programme and a part-time faculty member at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). In 2022, she obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Dance with distinction at HKAPA with a full scholarship from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund.

 

During 2021-2023, Lo was a Rehearsal Mistress for the children who danced in HKB’s Peter Pan, Cinderella, ALICE in Wonderland and The Nutcracker. Lo also teaches at City Contemporary Dance Company and Hong Kong Dance Company. In the past decade, she has been a guest teacher in South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia and Macau.

 

Lo’s accolades include ‘Most Promising Dancer’ from Friends of Hong Kong Ballet and ‘Outstanding Performance of the Year’ from Hong Kong Dance Alliance. Additionally, Lo was Chief Executive Manager of the Asian Grand Prix (AGP) in 2013-2015 and served as a jury member in different international competitions.

 

Shirley Loong

 

Under the influence of her late grandmother Ms Violet Wong (紫羅蘭), Shirley Loong started ballet training at the age of eight. Upon graduation at the National Ballet School of Canada, she honed her skills further at the John Cranko Ballett Schule in Stuttgart, Germany, and was being promoted to Coryphée soon after joining the Hong Kong Ballet, performing various solo principal roles.

 

After graduating with a Degree in Business Studies in Marketing with distinction at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, she returned to Hong Kong to begin her career in dance administration and education, working as the General Manager of Hong Kong Ballet Group and the Director of Education and Outreach of Hong Kong Ballet. Expanding her horizons in the field of Tibetan arts and culture, she established the Princess Mandarava Thangkas Gallery in 2013.      

 

Besides being currently the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance and the Hong Kong Committee of Royal Academy of Dance, as well as the Examiner in Dance of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Shirley is also a registered teacher of Royal Academy of Dance, instructing the artistic gymnastics team at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, City Contemporary Dance Company Dance Centre and the Gifted Young Dancer Programme at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She has recently been invited by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department to produce and host an online ballet education program Clap the Beat, Dance in Chic to promote dance art to the public.

 

Ronny Wong (26th Hong Kong Dance Awards)

 

Artistic director of Fellow dancers

Awardee of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship Scheme 2007-08

 

WONG is the co-founder of Fellow Dancers. He graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Contemporary dance. In 2007, he was awarded the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Scholarship and pursued a Master of Arts degree in Dance Performance at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, England.

 

During his stay in London from 2007 to 2012, WONG worked with renowned choreographers and organizations such as Lea Anderson, Luca Silvestrini, Maresa Von Stockert and Candoco Dance Company.

 

Since 2012, WONG has joined the dance faculty of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He is appointed the subject coordinator for (Applied Learning) taking a chance on dance since 2022.

 

WONG's choreographic works include Thea and Passion of the Earth. Besides serving as an outreach programme facilitator of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Contemporary Dance Series for four years, WONG also curated the key performance for the Longines Hong Kong International Races Gala Dinner and 25th Anniversary Hong Kong Reunification Raceday at Sha Tin Racecourse.

 

 

Cally Yu

 

Cally is a Hong Kong writer, curator, and educator. In 2013, she started the project Grey and Green Pong Pong to advocate the concept of creative aging in community art, for which several exhibitions and dance performances were organized to strengthen the identity and subjectivity of elderlies, while at the same time recognizing their creativity and sense of beauty.

 

Highly concerned about Hong Kong cultural and social development, Cally has long been teaching cultural theories, creative writing, and community art in different institutes, hoping to connect youths back to society. Experienced in improvisational dance, her full-length theatre productions include The Trembling Ears (2013) and the award-winning Ink Maze in 2018 IATC Critics Awards (Script / Playwright of the Year). Exploring the theatricality between text and movement and using poetic prose to address social issues, she continues to explore how can organic dialogues be opened between text, dance, and music. 

Online Production Category Panel
Chair
Angela HANG

 

Angela Hang graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) and was awarded a scholarship by the Asian Cultural Council to attend the American Dance Festival in North Carolina and New York. Hang is the founder of a local dance studio —Studiodanz, and has been worked with many local artists and as an instructor at HKAPA, City Contemporary Dance Company, Hong Kong Arts Centre, The University of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, City University of Hong Kong, The Education University of Hong Kong and Beijing Dance Academy. 

 

Hang has also devoted to nurturing local new dancers, she established one of the Hong Kong biggest dance competitions—The Best Dance Crew, and a lot of dancers from Hong Kong and Mainland China grab the chances to exchange with international dancers from worldwide through this platform.

Panelist
Abby Chan

 

Abby is a contemporary dance graduate of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and was a dancer and guest choreographer at the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC). In 1995, she received the Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship of the Asian Cultural Council to undergo a cultural exchange in the United States. In 1998, Abby co-found McMuiMui Dansemble with Yeung Wai-mei. She has been invited to New York, Colorado, Sydney, Tokyo, Kyoto, Seoul, Malaysia, Taipei, Singapore, Guangzhou, Sao Paulo, etc. to present her chorographical works, and is a four-time recipient of Hong Kong Dance Awards. In addition to dance, she has also actively participated in theatre performances and movement directions.

 

Her recent productions include Tai Kwun Dance Season 2019 MMM: RE and 2020 No Man is an Island in ÉLAN Lost Child Project HK (as director and choreographer); and was invited to participate in New Works Forum: Screendance (co-presented by the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) and CCDC), ON VIEW: Hong Kong, and WKCD’s three-year International Co-Lab Artist Residency programme, which provides opportunities for artist residency across Edinburgh, Auckland and Hong Kong.

Maurice Lai

 

Born and raise in Hong Kong, live in Tainan. One of Hong Kong and Taiwan most active directors of dance video art. A MFA graduate of the School of Film and TV at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. A slash life wandering between video, dance, opera and food culture. In 2020, he set up HoShunKing Artistic Workshop in Taiwan to engage in video creation. He is currently an adjunct assistant professor of School of Dance, Taipei National University of the Arts and College of Arts, Tainan University of Technology, sharing dance video art. He received from Hong Kong Dance Alliance, The Hong Kong Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Video and Photography for Dance in 2015 and Outstanding Visual Design in 2018 and 2022. In 2017 he received from City Contemporary Dance Company, City Contemporary Dance Laureate. In 2023, his dance film 'bulabulay mun?' won the 1st Cloud Stage Award (dance category) in Taiwan.

 

Medina Lau

 

Born and educated in Hong Kong, Medina started dancing since junior high school. Hand-picked by Willy Tsao, founder of City Contemporary Dance Company, she set off her professional dance career in 1984. She went on to join Tanz Theatre of Freiburg as soloist in Germany; and as principal and guest artist at Norrdans in Sweden.

 

As the producer and collaborator for the project “A Cross Cultural Dialogue between Finland & Hong Kong”, she choreographed and danced with Aurinkoballetti from Turku, Finland. She also travelled extensively for dance collaborations and research projects in England, Europe and Canada. In Hong Kong, she founded "dancelsewhere", a dance troupe presenting creative modern dance.

 

Besides freelancing on dance projects, she studies Chinese martial arts for the pursuit of movement and has become an accredited teacher of "YiQuan". She also works as a professional computer graphic designer for renowned international design corporations. In recent years, she has been focusing on research about contact improvisation and somatic movement.

Stella Lau

 

Stella Lau was born and raised in Hong Kong. Lau entered the Hong Kong Academy of Ballet for full-time professional training in 1982 and was awarded twice the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship in 1983 and 1984. Upon graduation, she began her performing career with the Hong Kong Ballet and in 1990 became the first homegrown dancer promoted to principal in the company’s history.

 

After ten years as a professional dancer, Lau furthered her studies at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 1995 where she graduated from the BFA (Hons) program in dance with first-class honors. She was later appointed as part-time lecturer and tutor at the School of Dance and the Interdisciplinary & Liberal Arts Department respectively . In 2003 Lau was showcased in the Hong Kong Dance Hall of Fame. She completed the MFA in Dance program in 2010 and is currently a full-time ballet lecturer at the School of Dance.

 

David Liu

 

David Liu began formal training in both dance and figure skating by the age of eight. He attended New York City Ballet's School of American Ballet (SAB) on full scholarship. He went on to hone his skills as a competitive figure skater and competed at the Olympic Games representing his native country, Taiwan.

 

David has produced, choreographed, and performed in numerous dance performances and skating exhibitions and was Co-Artistic Director of Ice Theatre of New York. Choreographically, he has also worked with various dance companies. In 2016, David created and directed a two-year touring show in Europe for Holiday on Ice. 

 

David's continual interest in expanding his understanding of dance and movement led him to live in Israel to study Gaga and completed the teacher training course in 2012. He went on to earn an MFA degree in dance and an M.A. degree in Counseling. Currently, he teaches Gaga at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts and maintains his practice as a mental health therapist.

Cally Yu

 

Cally is a Hong Kong writer, curator, and educator. In 2013, she started the project Grey and Green Pong Pong to advocate the concept of creative aging in community art, for which several exhibitions and dance performances were organized to strengthen the identity and subjectivity of elderlies, while at the same time recognizing their creativity and sense of beauty.

 

Highly concerned about Hong Kong cultural and social development, Cally has long been teaching cultural theories, creative writing, and community art in different institutes, hoping to connect youths back to society. Experienced in improvisational dance, her full-length theatre productions include The Trembling Ears (2013) and the award-winning Ink Maze in 2018 IATC Critics Awards (Script / Playwright of the Year). Exploring the theatricality between text and movement and using poetic prose to address social issues, she continues to explore how can organic dialogues be opened between text, dance, and music.