The yearning of a young man for his father takes dancers of the HKDC well beyond their usual dance routines.

words yvonne teh

Don’t think the Hong Kong Dance Company’s (HKDC) latest production is a dance. Don’t even look upon it as a musical. (Even though it promises to contain wonderfully affecting music from composer Leon Ko.) Thus urges Raymond To, director and scriptwriter of Angel Falls, an ambitiously innovative multi-arts offering that requires HKDC members and singer-actress Amy Chan to not only put on their dancing shoes but also exercise their vocal chords as they bring To’s characters to vibrant life.

To is not making light of his performers’ dancing ability. Far from it. In fact, as he told bc, his first collaboration with the HKDC asks for a level of expertise only achieved by those who have been dancing in earnest for 10 years at the very least. And that is why the veteran writer – who has over 100 scripts to his credit – and director of film and theatre claims, “If I find another company, a drama company, to do this play, they’d not be able to do it as well as the HKDC.”

When To talks about how he very much hopes people will regard his work, which revolves around a mother and son with a shared passion for dance, as “a play, a musical play, that only the HKDC can perform”, it is because he believes that would be a tribute to the performers’ range of talents and willingness to reinvent themselves trying something new – in this case, acting and singing.

And he emphasizes that Angel Falls’ characters may be dancers but the story is intended to be “interesting, provoking, attractive and touching” even for non-dancers. The intention of the writer, who has previously placed a spotlight on nightclub singers (I Have a Date with Spring), Cantonese Opera performers (Hu-Du-Men), film folks (Perhaps Love) and a scriptwriter (The Mad Phoenix), was to create a work with the universal and encouraging message that “every young person should have dreams”.

“Some years back,” he says, “it dawned on me that everyone needs something or someone to dream about, love or long for.” And even if the goal or vision can seem ridiculous to others, he has decided, it may still be well worth pursuing because by going after a dream, you are allowing hope into your life.

And that leads to the magical vision that drives To’s play and gives Angel Falls its romantically evocative name. A father tells his young son (later the play’s main character) of a legendary waterfall on which angels dance. “The angels don’t want to see human beings,” says the man, “but if you go to dance in front of the Angel Falls and you’re a good dancer, you’d attract the angels. What’s more, the angels would come and give you a wish, and that wish would come true.”

Raymond To, the storyteller, continues, “When he was 10 years old, the boy personally saw his parents quarrel and fight and then leave each other. After the family breaks up, he lives with his mother but continues to think a lot about his father.” So, with his father’s legend at the back of his mind, “he decides to be a good dancer because in his heart, he thinks that if he dances well, if he becomes famous, if he becomes somebody, then his father would come back...”

Angel Falls will be performed at the HKAPA’s Lyric Theatre from September 7 to 9 and 14 to 16. Evening shows are set to start at 7:45pm while the September 9 and 16 matinees are scheduled for 2:45pm. Tickets are $320, $240 and $160 from HK Ticketing, 31 288 288.