Freespace Dance 2023｜Dance Festival Introduction

A month-long programme of cutting-edge dance celebrating visionary women choreographers from around the world

The four-week inaugural edition of our new dance festival Freespace Dance celebrates the boundary-breaking work of women in dance-making. Showcasing work by artists of different generations and cultures, and spotlighting the inspired inventiveness and versatility of contemporary choreography, the works offer fresh perspectives on gender, power relations and politics, and new insight on creativity and imagination in dance and movement.

The festival opens with the Asian premiere of She Legend – a work by Hamburg duo Lisa Rykena and Carolin Jüngst that explores the queer potential of the comic superhero universe. Celebrated local choreographer Mui Cheuk-yin’s new work Double Happiness: The Promise of Red questions about the commitment and sincerity through traditional wedding rituals. It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend by Voetvolk / Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten Van Cauwenberghe from Belgium, is a compelling exploration of the manipulative power of speech and gesture. Living Room by renowned Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto, showing as the Asian premiere, is a captivating, whimsical piece about the unpredictability of our everyday lives. And Crowd by French-Austrian choreographer Gisèle Vienne, closes the festival with a slow-motion dance through the hedonistic ecstasy and darkness of a night-time teenage rave.

The festival also includes the new creation platform FIRST, an informal space where choreographers can discuss, share and develop new ideas for potential dance work projects.

Dance Appreciation and Criticism Writing Workshop, co-presented with the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC) and designed to nurture young dance critics (in Chinese only); as well as a number of post-performance discussions, talks and workshops. Further event details to be announced.

In addition, to aid accessibility and enhance the audience experience, selected events offer audio description, haptic touch tours, and an original pre-performance participatory physical introduction session on related choreographic concepts and movements.

Full details on the individual event pages.

• 14–15 April 2023 (Friday to Saturday) Rykena/Jüngst – She Legend* The Box
• 21–23 April 2023 (Friday to Sunday) Mui Cheuk-yin – Double Happiness: The Promise of Red The Box
• 25–26 April 2023 (Tuesday to Wednesday) Voetvolk / Lisbeth Gruwez and Maarten Van Cauwenberghe – It’s going to get worse and worse and worse, my friend The Box
• 29–30 April 2023 (Saturday to Sunday) Inbal Pinto – Living Room The Box
• 30 April and 7 May 2023 (Sunday) FIRST Creation Platform The Room
• 5–6 May 2023 (Friday to Saturday) Gisèle Vienne – Crowd The Box

Dance Festival Details

• Freespace Dance 2023｜Dance Festival
• Date: 14 Apr - 7 May 2023
• Venue: Freespace and Art Park, West Kowloon Cultural District
• Address: No. 18 Museum Dr, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Ticket Details

• Tickets available from 1 March 2023 (Wednesday) at 10:00am on online ticketing system Cityline and via telephone booking hotline at (852) 2111 5333 (10:00am to 7:00pm daily).
• Price: HKD 280

Source of above information: West Kowloon Cultural District official website