Dancers layered in baggy sweaters, loose t-shirts and sweat pants limber up. Toes in battered slippers are flexed, powerful limbs swung like elastic, easily, almost absent-mindedly. Choreographer Mui Cheuk-yin calls for attention and six male dancers sweep onto a space frosted in white tissue paper. A pause and then punchy music snaps the dancers into action, though the men are languid, soft and swaying. Four women stalk onto stage, disguised in their own tangled hair. A dark mood contrasts with the pure white tissue snowstorm.

Hong Kong Dance Company is doing something new. Something daring. Its two curators recognise the signs and feel it. Its choreographers have produced this work before, but sense renewed energy and surging excitement. They feel it. But, most of all, the dancers feel it, spreading supple arched limbs into precise whirlwind spins and pulsating leaps. In the flick of a silk fan, the swish of a ponytail, thrills mount – the thrill of the old transformed, the thrill of something different. “Even Chinese dance must be innovative,” says dancer Chen Rong, “so there will be new audiences and new cultures developed.”

For 25 years, HKDC has been producing quality traditional Chinese performances; its dancers, drawn from China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Macau and Hong Kong, have spent years repeating and perfecting the traditional steps. And so audiences at the awesome Kwai Tsing theatre, used to the formulae and unprepared for a svelte modern kick, may titter on September 22 when HKDC unveils Dream Dances.

Fans, umbrellas, handkerchiefs, and other old-school props – staples of Chinese theatre –­ remain, but gone is the rigid structure of dance drama. Instead the focus is on emotions, memories and recognition, with music by Chiu Tsang-hei, a composer usually associated with pop tunes. And simple trouser and top combos replace silken gowns. “We are not trying to tell a story, we are trying to convey an image,” explains Yuri Ng, HKDC curator, artistic director of the Hong Kong Ballet Group, and winner of two Hong Kong Dance Alliance awards.

Academy of Performing Arts students danced the original Dream Dances choreography: their old video footage impressed both curators of HKDC. So reviving the pieces using HKDC’s professional dancers could push boundaries, they thought, but initially they struggled to convince the company. Says Yuri, “It’s not been easy, but they have confidence in Mui and myself.”

In the updated production, four sections created by four different choreographers mimic human nature; some parts move fast and fiery against pounding drums and a sunset coloured stage. Others are gentle. One spectacular piece cascades water sleeves, the huge silk accoutrements made famous by Zhang Ziyi in the film House of Flying Daggers: the difference, says Yuri, is that on stage all the techniques are real.

While Mui, Jessica magazine’s Most Successful Woman of 2005, concentrates on the difficult task of fusing the sections, Yuri takes charge of the show’s visuals. He pushed for stylistic Armani-inspired costumes – black jersey pants and tight-fitting T-shirts. “Nowadays Chinese dancers are not so subtle, they are daring – you may see the energy just coming at you, so I try not to cover them so much.”

And handkerchief dancing adds a new dimension to Chen Rong’s hip-hop inspired style, honed while he studied African dance with the USA’s Alvin Ailey troupe. A mainlander, he came across dance by accident, discovering a teacher running through a routine with a class in kindergarten. Immediately he stood on his desk and repeated the steps. “I don’t remember it,” he says with a chuckle, but his proud mum re-tells the story often. Whipping out two handkerchiefs, he is just as eager to demonstrate today. The cloths spin impossibly fast in his hands and, as folk dancing turns to funk, the jaunty easy flow of movement becomes punctuated and rhythmic. It is an impressive display.

“This is a daring try,” admits Chen, of Dream Dances. And their daring is why he joined HKDC which, he believes, has real potential to claim an international stage. “The atmosphere here is very free, we can try things even if they are deemed unacceptable.” He thinks the company of dancers has an energy that propels progress and innovation. Yuri and Mui agree. “We both love the dancers’ attitude and passion to accept new things,” says Mui. “They have the hunger.” And the skills to succeed, adds Yuri, who, watching them, shivers and says, “I get goosebumps.”