Hong Kong Arts Festival "Radio and Juliet & Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring)"Hong Kong Arts Festival

Multi-award-winning choreographer re-imagines enduring classics from two eras

“Radiohead is more than just my favorite band; they are the soundtrack to my other side.” – Edward Clug

World-renowned and multi-award-winning choreographer Edward Clug has dazzled ballet lovers around the globe with his collaborations with leading companies including Stuttgart Ballet, Zurich Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater. His ballet works are praised for their poetic yet highly athletic qualities, while revealing the ironies of the human condition. At the grand opening of this year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong audience members will be treated to two of Edward Clug’s ingenious creations that re-imagine enduring classics.

Radio and Juliet is a modernised take on Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, boldly set to the music of Grammy-winning alternative rock band Radiohead. This love story—now steered by the cold hand of mechanisation—keeps audience members on the edge of their seats from start to finish with its surprises and dramatic irony (for example, Clug’s Juliet manipulates her various love interests rather than killing herself). Radiohead’s music, coupled with Ballet Maribor’s signature minimalist forms, intensifies the feelings of desperation and alienation. Amid this haunting atmosphere, Radio and Juliet revels in feelings of tension, loss and sorrow. The dancing, video effects and electronic rhythms are razor sharp, while the power of Radiohead’s dynamic compositions propels the dancers to new emotional heights.

Making its Asian premiere at the upcoming HKAF, Le Sacre du Printemps is Clug’s heartfelt tribute to Vaslav Nijinsky, whose pioneering 1913 choreography for The Rite of Spring famously caused a riot. Igor Stravinsky’s music of the same title was equally avant-garde at the time, shaking the classical music world to its core. Now, nearly 110 years later, Clug has reinvented this landmark piece. He adds a new dimension to the choreography by introducing the element of water to express the enormous power of the work, facilitating wildly exciting possibilities in the dancers’ movements. One of his many masterstrokes is the way he uses the medium of water to create unique, spectacular effects on stage, taking the emotional intensity of the ballet into an exhilarating, almost terrifying dimension.

Approx. 1 hr 50 mins incl. one interval