382 Recreation, Sport and the Arts
New Senior Secondary Curriculum in the 2009-10 school year, offering a series of in-depth performing arts programmes for senior secondary school students.
Major Cultural Events
Hong Kong Arts Festival
Held annually in February and March, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is one of the longest-established international festivals in Asia. The 2008 festival attracted over 127 600 people to 122 performances with an overall attendance rate of 98 per cent, a 36-year record high.
Highlights of the festival included the equestrian theatre Zingaro production jointly presented with the Hong Kong Jockey Club in support of the Olympic Equestrian Events co-hosted by Hong Kong as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Teatro Regio di Parma's production of Verdi's Rigoletto, Beijing Opera's The Master of Chou: Xiao Changhua, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Lorin Maazel, Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, András Schiff, Ornette Coleman, Samuel Beckett's play Fragments directed by Peter Brook, Ibsen's The Master Builder directed by Lin Zhaohua, the American Repertory Theatre's Orpheus X, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus directed by Tang Shu-wing, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch's Vollmond and Stuttgart Ballet' Swan Lake and Onegin.
International Arts Carnival
The six-week International Arts Carnival presented by the LCSD, held in July and August, was an event for the entire family. In addition to stage performances the carnival featured interactive programmes and activities such as pre-festival school tours, exhibitions, workshops and outdoor carnivals. A highlight was Sporting Fantasia, a programme series in support of the Beijing Olympics and the Olympic Equestrian Events that opened with AEROS, a programme that blended the physical virtuosity of gymnastics with the beauty of dance. Some 134 300 people attended the carnival's 402 events with the participation of 28 local and 15 overseas performing groups.
New Vision Arts Festival
The fourth New Vision Arts Festival continued its avant-garde style of programming featuring innovative and outstanding cross-cultural music, dance and theatre performances with an Asian focus. A number of local and overseas co-commissioned projects were featured, including the opening performances of the Nederlands Dans Theater I's new work Renature by Wayne McGregor, Liang Hongyu, a melting pot of Chinese regional operas co-commissioned with the Holland Festival and Zuni Icosahedron's God Came to China. Other highlights of the festival included the Fantasy of the Red Queen by Liu Sola and Ensemble Modern; The Tempest by the Contemporary Legend Theatre of Taiwan and film director Tsui Hark; and the Hong Kong-UK collaboration of verbatim theatre by Theatre du Pif. A total of 37 visiting and 30 local arts groups performed in 96 events during the five-week festival from October 23 to November 23 with a total attendance of more than 75 000 people.