Going Dutch at the Macau Arts Festival
‘Beautiful Arts, Beautiful Life!’ is the slogan for this year’s Macau Arts Festival which opened with The Aluminium Show on May 1 and draws to a close on the second last day of the month with the Little Mountain Arts Association’s The Magic Stone and the Nuevo Ballet Español’s Sangre Flamenca. A programme comprising some 30 performances in total works out to about one performance a day – more specifically each evening – to look forward to; one of which in particular is a show by one of the world’s pre-eminent dance companies.
Close to half a century ago, 18 dancers broke away from the tradition-orientated Het Nederlands Ballet (Ballet of the Netherlands) to establish a new dance group called the Nederland Dans Theatre. In 1978, a subsidiary troupe was formed specifically for dancers between the ages of 17 and 22. Equipped with its own repertoire, the Nederland Dans Theatre II has earned a reputation over the succeeding years as a true modern dance pioneer in its own right.
On Tuesday, May 27, the Nederlands Dans Theater II will take centre stage at the Macao Cultural Centre’s Grand Auditorium. The first piece in its programme, Sleepless, is an intriguing piece for six dancers, its choreography making notable use of a wall behind which dancers – or sometimes just parts of their bodies – appear and disappear. Later the tempo quickens in Minus 16, which features dance moves variously set to cha-cha, mambo and traditional Israeli music. And while Simple Things begins and ends with a male dance duet to accordion music, in between various pas-de-deux with two women are set to yet other types of music.
Showtime is 8pm. Tickets are MOP150, MOP100 and MOP60 from www.macauticket.com or try the Macau Arts Festival’s Hong Kong ticketing hotline, 2380 5083. |
We know that it’s a sister, rather than the same, SAR. That notwithstanding, Macau will be represented at the 17th Great Chefs of HK 2008 Cook-Off from 6 to 9pm on Thursday, May 22, at the Grand Hyatt HK’s Grand Ballroom. The Wynn Macau’s Okada restaurant’s master chef Hirofumi ‘Hiro’ Imamura – accompanied by his wife, sake sommelier Sachii Imamura – will be serving his signature dishes at this charity cum culinary event. Tickets are priced at $700. (For further details, e-mail cdd@heephong.org or contact Miss Lai, 3618 6236.)
Most other evenings will find the Imamuras back in Macau working together at Okada (G/F, Wynn Macau, Rua Cidade de Sintra, NAPE; +853-8986 3668) to offer speciality and traditional Japanese dishes complemented by choice sake selections. Current highlights on the fine dining establishment’s a la carte menu include scallop ceviche with yuzu foie gras butter with ponzu and kanzuri sauce (MOP170), pan-seared yellowtail with miso marinated foie gras truffle teriyaki sauce (MOP250) and abalone mini hot pot (MOP380). Additionally, red meat eaters might find themselves tempted by the roasted Australian wagyu beef with wasabi oroshi (MOP480). Open nightly from 5:30pm to 12:30am. 
