Hong Kong Dance Company’s new full-length production, The Legend of Lanling, continues artistic director Yang Yuntao’s quest to combine Chinese dance with martial arts.
Warrior Lanling is the sobriquet given to a real-life Chinese hero of the Northern Qi dynasty, Gao Changgong (541-573). Famed for both his heroic military exploits and his gentle nature, Lanling is said to have worn a mask on the battlefield to disguise the beauty of his face and terrify the enemy – his combination of noble character and fierce fighting skills is the very essence of the classic martial arts hero.
He met a tragic end when the emperor had him poisoned.
The choreography, by Yang with principal dancers Ong Tze Shen and Ho Ho-fei as assistant choreographers, is heavily based on martial arts and is brilliantly executed by the whole company, with both male and female dancers as warriors.
Ong and Ho also share the title role, with Ho embodying the ruthless warrior and Ong the complex human being.
A device employed to excellent effect contrasts high-speed movement by the group with slow motion by an individual – notably when Ong’s Lanling circles very slowly round the central stage where the warriors are fighting.
Despite its undoubted power, The Legend of Lanling stays on one note all the way through – after the first 40 minutes, I began to crave more contrast and variety in both visuals and choreography. Yang and his collaborators have chosen to take a non-narrative approach. Unfortunately, the treatment is so abstract that it fails to generate any deeper emotion and leaves one with no clear sense of Lanling’s persona.
Another issue is the lopsided structure: the first (and much longer) half is far stronger than the second. After the interval, a scene with warriors beating huge drums on both sides of the stage reaches a climax, which makes for an excellent finish. However, instead of stopping there, the piece carries on to end on a low-key scene which comes as a let-down.
The production reunites the creative team from Nezha: Untold Solitude and shows again how much talent there is in Hong Kong’s design scene.
Yeung Tsz-yan’s magnificent lighting sets the mood and creates striking effects to highlight key moments. Mandy Tam’s costumes and Jan Wong’s set evoke a harsh, monochrome world of war. The whole stage is covered in damp soil, representing the mud of Lanling’s many battlefields; by the end, the warriors are covered in it, like soldiers from World War I.
A slope rises up at the back of the stage, of which Yang makes clever use – bodies roll slowly over and over down it; Lanling himself descends or ascends it, singled out by a shaft of light.
Laurence Lau’s minimalist score is well-judged and augmented by the tremendous drumming performed by the company’s amazingly multitalented dancers.
“The Legend of Lanling”, Hong Kong Dance Company, Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium. Reviewed: April 13.