Dance Dialogue: Focus on Jacky Fung, Programme Manager, City Contemporary Dance Festival

This year, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought exceptional challenges to the world. How to adapt to the new environment, creating arts with the social distance is no doubt the top mission for us who are working in the creative industry.

I am Jacky Fung, the program manager of CCDC (City Contemporary Dance Company) Dance Centre and China Dance Development. I’m happy to share my works with you, to let you know the situation in Hong Kong, and the status of our company during the pandemic.

The theatres in Hong Kong have been closed since the end of July, and they re-opened only recently. First for renters for rehearsals then for performances or activities without a live audience. Due to the development of the pandemic, the major facilities are expected to be opened for performances or activities with a live audience from October 1 onwards with special seating arrangements. The number of audience members will be limited to half of the original capacity.

At CCDC, we launched a Digital Dance Season. To keep is running, we moved the productions and activities to the online streaming platform. For example, the Jumping Frames International Dance Video Festival became an online screening. A Lover’s Concerto, originally a stage production, we transformed the duo pieces into dance videos and streaming online.

The REAL Showcase Series – Solara and Luna recorded the premiere in our studio and put it to the online streaming platform. As the theatre will re-open for the audience in this October, the Project NEXT Wave will have the stage performance and also streaming the dance video version online in the Digital Dance Season.

As a dance company and a dance center, CCDC tried quite a lot of possibilities during this period, including the productions, the residency programs, dance classes and educational programs etc. Although most of the original planned programs were suspended, we still programmed but in different formats. Honestly, it was a really big challenge, but we are happy to deal with them in this special moment.

We also launched a new arrangement to help our local artists. The plan called POST IT FOR YOU encourages the artists to share their thoughts, ideas, or any new idea about dance and make it as a Facebook post, selected posts will be posted on the CCDC social media platform and the artists will receive a financial reward determined by the interactions and comments. Our hope is that this idea will help the freelance artists who lost normal income during this period, and also encourage to keep dance in different way although we are in quarantine.

We planned a series of programs for the local and international audience in 2021. Mr. Yuri Ng who will be the 4th Artistic Director of CCDC, will take part in the future planning of the Company. The International Dance Festival – including the City Contemporary Dance Festival (CCDF) and the HOTPOT – East Asia Dance Platform are already on the list, we look forward to joining hands together again with the globe.

To learn more about CCDC, click here.