ENG-2013 — Page 399

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Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

Entertainment Programmes

In 2013, the LCSD organised 23 major festive and thematic carnivals and 629 district art shows with a total audience of 1,180,000, featuring a range of local and overseas performances and

arts.

Arts Education and Audience-building Projects

In 2013, the LCSD organised 1,279 arts education and audience-building activities in schools, community halls and other public venues to promote the arts and encourage participation in cultural activities.

Among the various arts education schemes, the 'New Synergy Arts Animateur Scheme' was continued in 2013 after its pilot run, training students wishing to further develop their artistic pursuit after completing elementary training in script writing and music composition. Following its successful implementation in Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong, the 'Community Oral History Theatre Project' was extended to Tai O with site-specific performances by the elderly participants staged at scenic attractions in the district.

Major Culture and Arts Events

Hong Kong Arts Festival

The annual Hong Kong Arts Festival included 13 world premieres and 17 Asian premieres in its 41st season, serving an audience of over 132,000. Presentations included the Einstein on the Beach; and the San Carlo Theatre's Hong Kong debut with Verdi's La Traviata, II Marito Disperato and Viva Verdi in the 200th anniversary year of the composer's birth. Other international performers included Esperanza Spalding, Goran Bregovic, Yeung Fai, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Musiciens du Louvre, the American Ballet Theatre, Fabulous Beast, La Baraka, 1927, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the National Theatre of Britain. Festival productions included contemporary dance, music, theatre and the chamber opera Heart of Coral, and the co-production of Green Snake with the National Theatre of China.

International Arts Carnival

The LCSD's annual International Arts Carnival in July and August opened with Architecture in Motion by the Diavolo Dance Theater from USA. Some 158,400 people attended the carnival's 426 events, involving seven visiting and 51 local arts groups/artists, offering an array of programmes ranging from acrobatics, physical comedy, magic theatre, puppetry and mime to music theatre and dance.

World Cultures Festival – Lasting Legacies of Eastern Europe

The fifth edition of the LCSD's World Cultures Festival featured a selection of representative artists and art forms from Eastern Europe. The festival included Anna Karenina by the Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg, Chekhov's classic Uncle Vanya directed by Russian director Lev Dodin, and Persona. Marilyn directed by Polish director Krystian Lupa. The festival's 119 events attracted an audience of over 124,700.

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