ENG-1990 — Page 374

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

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Under Ms Shu Qiao, its Artistic Director, the 45-member company presented seven major productions in 26 performances, attracting 21 800 people. Apart from major productions, the company also gave free lecture demonstrations and performances in civic centres, schools and district community centres to 6 040 people.

In late March, the company was invited by the Environment Musical Production to tour Taipei with two performances of Chinese Dance Present and Past in the Taipei City Traditional Arts Festival. The performances were well received by a total audience of 2 150.

Chung Ying Theatre Company

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The Chung Ying Theatre Company, which is supported by the Council for the Performing Arts, began the year with successful productions of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, staged as part of the 1990 Arts Festival. The company has an active education programme, and took its productions of Antigone, Windigo and Puppy Love on tour to schools after presenting them at public performances. The company represented Hong Kong at the Asian Festival of Drama in Kuala Lumpur.

For the first time in Hong Kong, a Cantonese version of Vaclav Havel's comedy The Memorandum was staged in the autumn. Another first was the Studio Season at the Arts Centre, comprising a series of short orginal scripts devised, written or directed by company members and associates.

City Contemporary Dance Company

It was a very busy year for the City Contemporary Dance Company with 30 public performances including four new dance productions, one re-run, and two opus pro- ductions. Those choreographed by the company's Artistic Director, Willy Tsao, included Birds Song in the company's 1990 Hong Kong Arts Festival's production of Dreams of the Islands and the Continent, Song of the Good Earth II, Three Romantic Chinese, and Fools Stories.

The company made its debut in Japan in October with a programme featuring original works by Willy Tsao and Helen Lai at the Yakult Hall in Tokyo.

With financial assistance from the Council for the Performing Arts, the company runs its own evening dance school providing training to dance enthusiasts. It also has a Dance Education Unit which gave 100 performances to colleges, secondary and primary schools to promote appreciation of modern dance. The City Contemporary Theatre and Gallery continued to organise many innovative experimental dance and theatre productions and exhibitions for up-coming professional artists.

Hong Kong Ballet

The Hong Kong Ballet enjoyed another year of significant achievement. With finan- cial support from the Council for the Performing Arts, it grew to 32 dancers, with internationally-renowned guest artists.

A full-scale production of Giselle was presented in March. The next major season was in May, at the Lyric Theatre of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Entitled Illuminations, it displayed the wide range of the company's repertoire from classical (Romeo and Juliet by Andre Prokovsky) to modern works (Square Dance and Tarantella, both by Balanchine, and Connotations by Val Caniparoli.)