The City Contemporary Dance Company of Hong Kong was founded in 1979 by Willy Tsao, an artist involved with more than one Chinese formation hosted by Oriente Occidente. A choreographer, promoter of dance development in his country, and teacher, Tsao plays a decisive role in the founding of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company as well as in the history of the Beijing Modern Dance Company and the Beijing Dance/LDTX. Among the many awards received by Tsao are the Bronze Bauhinia Star (1999) and the Honorary Fellowship awarded to him by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2000. In 2004, he accompanied the President of the People's Republic of China, Hu Jintao, on his official visit to South America, presenting many performances with the Beijing Modern Dance Company.
With the City Contemporary Dance Company, Tsao has promoted numerous Chinese choreographers who contribute to enriching the group’s repertoire, as can be seen in the program proposed at the festival.
365 Ways of Doing and Undoing Orientalism is a creation by Willy Tsao along with Xing Liang and Sang Jijia. The work explicitly starts from several questions: “What is oriental? What is not? Who is authorized to define it? Why do some 'orientals' feel offended by being labeled as such while others cannot bear being left out?” It reflects on the clichés of exoticism, emphasizing elements such as Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire, offering an engaging tour through the four seasons of nature. Autumn is portrayed as a time of harvest and the richness of ethnic culture; spring as folkloric ecstasy; summer as a bubbling of passions; and winter as purity. This work on "west-meet-east" has already achieved success abroad, from Copenhagen to New York.
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