Dance Company as Platform: Rethinking dance ecology  舞团作为平台：探索舞蹈新生态

Unlock Dancing Plaza (Unlock) was founded by Ong Yong Lock and Elsie Chau in 2002, with Ong serving as Artistic Director ever since. Unlock is regarded as one of the most experimental and forward-thinking contemporary dance companies in Hong Kong. In 2022, Joseph Lee was appointed Ong’s successor, while Ong became Creative Director, focusing on public participatory projects. 

In this event, Lee, a dancer, choreographer, and performance curator, will share his thoughts on shifting the company’s focus toward creating space and platforms, and reflect on the evolution of Hong Kong’s contemporary dance scene over the past decade. Lee hopes to connect with the local dance community in Kuala Lumpur to explore how a cross-regional network could help gather resources for more sustainable development of contemporary dance in the region. 

不加锁舞踊馆由王荣禄和周金毅于2002年创立，王荣禄自创团以来一直担任艺术总监。不加锁舞踊馆被认为是香港最具实验性和前瞻性的当代舞蹈团体之一。2022年，李伟能被任命为艺术总监接班人，而王荣禄则转任创意总监（公众参与），专注于公众参与项目。 

在本次分享中，作为编舞、表演者及表演策划人的李伟能，将分享他关于将团体重心转向创造空间与平台的想法，并回顾过去十年香港当代舞蹈界的发展历程。李伟能希望与吉隆坡本地舞蹈社群建立联系，探索跨区域网络如何有助于汇聚资源，推动本地区当代舞蹈的可持续发展。 

Speaker 分享者: 

Joseph Lee (Artistic Director of Unlock Dancing Plaza) 
李伟能 (艺术总监, 不加锁舞蛹馆) 

Date 日期: 21 June (Sat)

Time 时间: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM 

Venue 地点: Five Arts Centre, 9th floor, GMBB KL

Admission 入场: Free 

Organised by 主办单位：Unlock Dancing Plaza 不加锁舞踊馆

Venue Partner 场地合作: Five Arts Centre 

Supported by 支持单位： Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Jakarta 

About the speaker

Joseph Lee
Joseph Lee is a choreographer, performer, and performance curator. Lee graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and completed a Master of Arts in Contemporary Dance at London Contemporary Dance School and was appointed as the Artistic Director of Unlock Dancing Plaza in 2022.

Lee’s creation mediums involve live performance, video, writing, and curation. Lee uses creation to understand the significance of dance in the contemporary context, specializing in deconstructing the presentation and nature of the body, imagery, and symbols at different levels, and redefining and refocusing the performativity of the work through performance. Based on the audience's perception, the works deliberately create various kinds of dislocations, conflicts, or modulations beyond expectations, to guide the external viewing experience back to its introspection.


李伟能
李伟能是一位编舞、表演者和表演策划人。 毕业于香港中文大学及英国伦敦当代舞蹈学院艺术硕士学位（当代舞），于2022年被委位为不加锁舞踊馆艺术总监。

他的创作媒介包括现场表演、录像、文字书写及策划，以创作去理解舞蹈于当代的意义，擅长解构身体、意象及符号在不同层面的呈现和本质，透过展演去重新定义和聚焦当中的表演性。 作品以观众的感知为基础，刻意制造出各种错置、冲突、或超越期望的调度，用以引导外在观看的经验回归到自身的省思。

About Unlock Dancing Plaza 关于不加锁舞蛹馆

Unlock Dancing Plaza is one of the most forward-thinking and adventurous contemporary dance companies in Hong Kong. Founded in 2002 by Ong Yong Lock and Elsie Chau, the company is financially supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council since 2009. In 2022, Joseph Lee succeeded Ong as the Artistic Director and Ong became Creative Director (Public Engagement), focusing on outreach and community programmes. Determined to extend possibilities of dance making, Unlock aspires to develop a diverse performing arts ecology. Emancipate from institutionalized dance aesthetic, the company proposes to redefine dance as a natural form of self-expression, honouring individuality, and breaking from the production-focused par for the course. In recent years, Unlock makes new attempt to conduct various experimental projects to re-imagine dance.

Unlock embodies individuality in dance and promote the concept of “Danceless”, a new aesthetic notion to forsake dance techniques and empower everyone’s ability to dance. Unlock engages the community through workshops and showcases, effectively promotes mutual exchange between artists and the public by shared dance experiences.

Elaborating on the idea of Danceless, first #DANCELESS complex was launched in 2021.  It became a platform for choreographers from different cultural background to share ideas, to perform, and to experiment. 

Unlock makes new attempt to initiate “Unlock Body Lab” - a series of research on dance and performances. Its “dance-to-be” cross-media, cross-culture residency project encourages experimentation and emphasises the work-in-progress creative process, focusing on every stages of creation before the performance, whereas the format of concluding presentation is open to numerous possibilities.

Unlock is a three-time Hong Kong Dance Awards recipient and highly recognised by the dance industry. Its representative works include Jump to Mars, Dance with me, Boy Story. Reborn, Wanderer, serial dance-theatre Walls 44, Chopin VS Ca, and etc. Touring to dance festivals around the world for years, Unlock closely connects with people and place, making dialogues in dance.

不加锁舞踊馆为香港其中一个最具前瞻性及实验精神的当代舞团，由王荣禄及周金毅成立于2002年，自2009年起成为香港艺术发展局资助团体，首任艺术总监为王荣禄。2022年，李伟能接任艺术总监，王荣禄担任创意总监，主理外展及社区计划。舞团积极扩阔舞蹈表演的可能性，并尝试体现和实践于制作中，锐意发展多元的表演艺术生态。解放体制化的舞蹈美学，以个人为本，根据身体的独特性重新为舞蹈定义，走出制作主导的运作模式。近年来，舞团作多方面尝试，开拓舞蹈的多元想象。

舞团提出「#非关舞蹈」的概念，主张从身体独特性出发，摒除体制化的舞蹈技巧，相信每个人都可以跳舞。借一系列社区参与的创作、演出及工作坊，发展、推广及深化；促成艺术家与公众双向交流，共同体验舞蹈艺术。

从「#非关舞蹈」的概念延伸，于2021年策划首届的「#非关舞蹈祭」，集合来自不同文化语境中的编舞者对于舞蹈表演的思考与突破，让舞蹈节成为一个展演平台以外，知识及经验流动的交流空间以及编舞实验场。

舞团亦尝试扩展制作以外的项目，聚焦于过程的价值及潜能，发展出 Unlock Body Lab：策划跨媒介、跨交化的驻场项目，鼓励具开放性及实验性的探索，并鼓励创作者以各种形式作总结，以呈现作品的阶段成果。

舞团曾三度获香港舞蹈年奖，深得业界认可。代表剧场作品包括《跳着舞去火星》、《男生·男再生》、《游弋苍穹》、连续舞蹈剧场《墙四十四》、《肖邦 vs CA帮》等。多年来巡演于世界各地的舞蹈节，以舞蹈去打开对话，连结不同地区和社群。