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Published on March 10, 2008

The cultural scene in Hong Kong has recently been vibrant, with art lovers getting the chance to celebrate, ever since Valentine's Day, the year's largest gathering of local and international performance artists.

And of all 82 programmes offered in the 36th Hong Kong Arts Festival, one of biggest highlights was none other than "Vollmond", a dance-theatre production by Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

The Germany-based company, under the direction of celebrated choreographer Pina Bausch, has been in great demand globally thanks to its reputation for an edgy, yet seamless blend between dance and theatre, movements and speeches, and beautifully choreographed steps.

Bausch has proved her exceptional creative power once again with the Asian premiere of "Vollmond" (the title means "full moon"). It received thunderous applause and standing ovations at all four sold-out performances earlier this month.

The curtain rose, revealing a mountainous rock gleaming against a stark black stage. Two men appeared, each holding a bottle in his hand, and started "creating" music by whooshing the bottles against the air.

They were soon joined by another man who swished his long stick, making a louder sound. The Cultural Centre's Grand Theatre increasingly reverberated, and a dance solo began the moment the stick was thrown offstage.

"Vollmond" comprised a sequence of short scenes in which 12 dancers had separate roles, yet no one piece was isolated. The dancers were of different ages, shapes, sizes, and cultures, but they wove their parts altogether exquisitely as a whole.

Unlike classical ballet, in which the dancers have to meet particular requirements of body type and look like they're moulded from the same block, the variety and the physical imperfection of dancers in "Vollmond" made the piece more down to earth, despite their superb technical prowess.

What also distinguished the show from other pieces was the use of water onstage. Although water has come into play in Bausch's productions before, none has ever existed wholly with water as the main element.

The dancers were not just dancing under a deluge of rain that hit the stage, there was also a river flowing across, where they were swimming. They splashed each other with buckets full of water that caught the light and glistened in the visually breathtaking full-moon vista.

Amid the torrents, the audience witnessed different relationships. In one scene, a girl in a gorgeous pink dress pecked a man on his lips non-stop. In another, a woman flirtatiously coached docile men to unclasp her bra quickly enough "to please women". In a group piece, female dancers scattered themselves all over the stage, each sitting on a chair, smiling and receiving kisses from men, while they instead tap their foot on the men's chest in return.

Like the full moon that controls the tide, Bausch's women seemed to dominate their relationships, although both entities need each other in order for the tide to rise and the romance to commence.

Unconventional, like Bausch herself, these women did not stoop to the traditional concept of being overpowered by men.  Under the shining moon, what Bausch wanted to tell the audience was that the time of women has finally arrived.

Jasmine Baker

Special to The Nation