Helen Lai is one of Hong Kong's foremost choreographers. In 2002, Lai was awarded the Distinguished. Achievement Award by the Hong Kong Dance Alliance. In 2003 she received the Award for Arts Achievement (Dance) from the Arts Development Council for her contributions towards arts development in Hong Kong. She received an Honorary Fellowship from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in July 2004. Lai received the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2015 - Award for Outstanding Contribution in Arts. At the 2016 Hong Kong Dance Awards, Lai's Latest production, Soledad, took awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Ensemble Performance, as well as Outstanding Choreography for her stunning work.

Tom Brown is the Editor of dance journal/hk, and the retired Dean of Graduate Education and former Associate Dean of Dance and Head of Modern Dance at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts where he taught for 29 years.

Carlo Pacis joined Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) after graduating with First-class Honours from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 1998. Before leaving HKB, he was a senior soloist essayed lead roles in repertoire such as The Merry Window, Madame Butterfly, Swan Lake and Firecracker and danced in principal role in abstract works such as Balanchine's Rubies and Stanton Welch's Clear.  He received the Hong Kong Dance Award in 2002 for his technical artistry and the depth of his dramatic reading of roles.

Man-wing Cheng graduated from L’Ecole Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré, L’Université de la Sorbonne in France, and The Sormerset College of Arts and Technology in the UK, majoring fine art textile and fabric printing technology. Cheng explores the interaction between fashion and theatre. He periodically presents his fashion collections in Paris. His recent theatre works include Theatre du Pif, On and On Theatre Workshop, Actors’ Family, Hong Kong Arts Festival, City Contemporary Dance Company, Theatre Horizon, Prospects Theatre, Y-Space, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and others.

Born in Hong Kong, Jennifer Mok graduated from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2005 majoring in Ballet and studied modern dance in 2006. she undertook an internship with Expression Dance Company in Australia for its US tour in 2007 before joining City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC) in the same year. She left CCDC in 2014 and became a freelance artist.

Photo courtesy of Maurice Lai

Originally from London, Natasha Rogai has lived in Hong Kong since 1997. She has been the dance critic of South China Morning Post since 2005. She is the Hong Kong correspondent of respected monthly Dancing Times and a member of the board of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance. In 2016, Ms Rogai received the Hong Kong Dance Award for Services to Dance.

Photo courtesy of South China Morning Post

Born in Poland, Stefan Zeromski joined the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw after graduating from the State Ballet School in Poznan, Poland in 1985. He became a soloist the following year and was awarded the Leon Wojcikowski Prize for best dancer. In 1987, he joined Ballett der Deutschen Oper Berlin as a soloist and worked with choreographers such as Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart and Lucinda Childs. Until recently, Zeromski was a dancer of the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) where he participated in creating many original works by Jiří Kylián, Paul Lightfoot, Sol Léon, Mats Ek, William Forsythe, Johan Inger and Ohad Naharin, among others. He also danced in the television recordings of NDT’s repertoire, including Bella Figura, Sweet Dreams, Petite Mort, Signing Off, Wings of Wax and Silent Screen. Zeromski is currently a freelance dancer, ballet master and teacher.

Freelance teacher classical and modern, ballet master, assistant choreographer Shirley Esseboom was born in The Hague in The Netherlands where she received her dance education at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Shirley started her dance career in 1993 when she joined Nederlands Dans Theater II. In 1997 she moved on to join the main company, Nederlands Dans Theater I. In 1998 she was awarded the “Encouragement Prize” for young dancers from the Stichting Dansersfonds ’79. In 2003 she left the company to join Les Ballets de Monte Carlo where she worked with the director/choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot. She rejoined NDT I in the following year, where she was a principle dancer. Shirley received the "Merit Award" from the Stichting Dansersfonds '79 in 2008, and the "Golden Swan" award for her entire career in 2009. She left NDT I in 2009 to pursue a career as a freelance artist, including setting ballets of Jiri Kylian. During her career she created many original works with choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Wiliam Forsyth, Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Ohad Naharin, Paul Lightfoot/Sol Leon, Wayne McGregor, Saburo Teshigawara, Eduard Lock, Johan Inger, Nacho Duato, and others.

Stella Lau is currently the Lecturer (Ballet) and Co-ordinator of Gifted Young Dancer Programme of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. She graduated from the Hong Kong Academy of Ballet and was awarded twice the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance Fund Scholarship. Lau began her performing career with Hong Kong Ballet and was the first homegrown principal dancer. She has extensive performing experience in both classical and contemporary works in Hong Kong and overseas. Lau obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) and Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the Academy where was awarded First-class Honours in 1997 and Dean of Dance Prize in 2010. Besides focusing on higher education for the past 20 years, Lau is also committed to the development of dance in the community at large. She hosts public talks, lectures and workshops on dance appreciation. She was showcased in the Hong Kong Dance Hall of Fame in 2003, was awarded in the Secretary for Home Affairs’ Commendation Scheme for her outstanding contribution to the development of arts and culture in Hong Kong in 2015 and the City Contemporary Dance Laureate this April. Currently, Lau is Chairperson of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance and Hong Kong Chapter of World Dance Alliance.

Born in Stockholm, Madeleine Onne established herself as a formidable artistic force to be reckoned with in the international dance world. As one of Sweden’s leading ballerinas, Onne was renowned for her engaging style and dramatic talent. As Principal Dancer of The Royal Swedish Ballet (RSB) from 1984 to 2002, she danced major roles in almost all classical repertoire as well as Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and Manon, John Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew and Onegin, John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Peer Gynt, Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée, and ballets by George Balanchine, Birgit Cullberg, Choo-san Goh, Jiří Kylián, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor and Maurice Béjart. Before joining Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) in 2009, she was Artistic Director of RSB for six years. At HKB, she has commissioned new ballets including Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty, Pär Isberg’s Pinocchio, Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Xin-peng Wang’s Dream of the Red Chamber, Peter Quanz’s Luminous, Jorma Elo’s Shape of Glow, Kinsun Chan’s Black on Black and Yuh Egami and Ricky Song-wei Hu’s Bolero. She has also initiated the popular series Ballet Classics for Children by Yuri Ng and expanded the Company’s repertoire with ballets by some of today’s most important choreographers, such as Alexei Ratmansky, Nacho Duato, Fei Bo, Nils Christie, Krzysztof Pastor and Christian Spuck. The repertoire will include ballets by Jiří Kylián and Christopher Wheeldon in the years to come. Under her leadership, HKB has embarked on 13 tours to China, Japan, Canada, and North and South America. Highlights include performances at The Joyce Theatre in New York in 2016, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2012 and 2014 and Fall For Dance Festival in NYC in 2012 and 2016. In addition to its international engagements, the Company has been invited to be one of the partner companies of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne competition. Onne also established exchange programmes between HKB and The Australian Ballet, The Royal Ballet of Flanders and RSB.Onne is passionate about every aspect of ballet, on and off stage. Throughout her career, she was on a number of the Swedish government’s committees responsible for awarding grants to the arts. In 1996, she founded an off-shoot company of RSB called Stockholm 59 Degrees North, which toured during RSB’s summer break. Stockholm 59 Degrees North, featuring 15 of RSB’s leading dancers, presented Swedish and international contemporary choreography. The group has won critical acclaim ever since its spectacular début at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Massachusetts in 1997.As Artistic Director of RSB, Onne commissioned several ballets (both full-length and one-act ballets) by choreographers like Mats Ek, Christian Spuck, Krzysztof Pastor, Patrice Bart and Nils Christie, as well as a two-act ballet based on the famous children books about Pippi Longstocking choreographed by Pär Isberg and Karl Dyall. Onne also included in the repertoire ballets by Alexei Ratmansky, Nacho Duato, Jiří Kylian, Alonzo King, David Dawson, Mauro Bigonzetti, Christopher Hampson and Jean-Christophe Maillot, among others. During her tenure, Onne initiated RSB’s first tour back to China in 40 years. Additionally, Onne has been invited as a jury member for numerous international ballet competitions across Europe as well as in Russia, USA, Cuba, Canada, South America, Japan, Korea, Finland, France and China.Onne’s distinguished list of honours include, among others, the prestigious Royal medal Litteris et Artibus and The Royal Swedish Opera’s Gold Medal of Honour in recognition of her years as a Principal Dancer as well as Artistic Director for RSB. She is one of only five women to have received the title of “Dancer of the Swedish Royal Court” from HRH King Carl XVI Gustaf.

As the Head of Dance at West Kowloon, Anna Chan is responsible for shaping the district’s artistic direction and strategies for dance.Under her leadership, a series of new dance projects have been launched that offer local and international artists a platform to explore innovative forms of creating and performing, and new ways of discussing and thinking about topics related to contemporary performances. A co-organiser of the Producers’ Network Meeting & Forum, she recently launched the WE Dance campaign, and has also initiated a number of international dance collaborations and partnership projects for West Kowloon. In 2007, Anna became the Vice-President (East Asia) of the World Dance Alliance Asia Pacific. Prior to this, she was Head of the Performing Arts Education Centre at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. During her tenure, the Centre created several successful community engagement projects, including “smARTS Journey” and “Performing Arts Marathon”. She was also the Chairperson of the Hong Kong Dance Alliance from 2006 to 2011 and Dance Advisor of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council since 2008.

Photo courtesy of Graeme Collins

Ong Yong Lock was born in Malaysia, joined the Hong Kong Dance Company in 1989, then joined the City Contemporary Dance Company in 1993. He has toured with the company to perform in various places such as the Mainland, Taiwan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea, Japan, France and Israel, etc. Ong was a founding member of South 'ASLI' Dance Workshop (SADW). In 1997, he became the Artistic Director of SADW (1997-2001). In 1998, Ong joined the Expressions Dance Company in Brisbane, Australia to perform in the Brisbane Festival 1998. In the same year, he was invited to teach modern dance in Japan and Malaysia as well as choreographed for the 19th Chinese Dance Festival in Malaysia. In 2000, Ong was invited to perform in the East Dragon Dance Festival and World Dance in Japan. He was awarded the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2002 for his choreography of ballet 4 In for The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and was appointed as arts advisor of dance by Hong Kong Arts Development Council in the same year. He received the Award for Best Artist (Dance) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2014. In 2002, Ong founded the Unlock Dancing Plaza with Elsie Chau to promote and popularize modern dance. His choreographic talents also spoke for itself in the productions which were shown in Asian Art Festival, International Sino Dance Week, Malaysian Chinese Dance Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Dance Festival and 20th International Academy of Dance Festival. He has collaborated with various dance companies including Hong Kong Dance Company, City Contemporary Dance Company, Beijing Dance/LDTX, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Xiamen Modern Dance, The Hong Kong Ballet, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and Queensland University of Technology. Ong's highly acclaimed full-length works include 10 Nights' Wanderings, Whispering Of Love, Love Sick, Kung Fu and Tofu, Chopin VS CA, Walls 44 and Wanderer. Wanderer received the 2015 Hong Kong Dance Awards "Outstanding Achievement in Independent Production".

A member of the Bai ethnic minority in Yunnan, Yang Yuntao was a graduate of the Minzu University of China’s Faculty of Dance. A former member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company and the Beijing Modern Dance Company, he won the Bronze Prize at the inaugural Central Modern Dance Competition and the Gold Prize and Outstanding Male Performer at the 2nd National Lotus Awards Competition for his performance as principal dancer in Ma and Le Visiting the Sky. Later at the 6th China Arts Festival, he received the Outstanding Performance Award. He also won the Gold Award in Solo Dance in South of the Cloud at the 7th National Dance Competition for Ethnic Minorities.Yang joined the Hong Kong Dance Company in 2002 as Principal Dancer. A year later, he received the Hong Kong Dance Award from the Hong Kong Dance Alliance for his performance in Water Margin and The Song of the Earth. He joined the City Contemporary Dance Company in 2005, winning the Hong Kong Dance Award the following year for his performance in The Conqueror. Yang returned to the Hong Kong Dance Company in 2007 as Assistant Artistic Director and received the Award for Best Artist (Dance) at the 2009 Hong Kong Arts Development Awards, Outstanding Achievement in Production for his choreography Spring Ritual．Eulogy at the 2013 Hong Kong Dance Awards, and Outstanding Production and Outstanding Ensemble Performance for The Legend of Mulan at the 2014 Hong Kong Dance Awards. Most recently, Storm Clouds was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Production at the 2015 Hong Kong Dance Awards. Yang has choreographed for the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Beijing Modern Dance Company and City Contemporary Dance Company. His works for the Hong Kong Dance Company include Border Town, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, Everlasting Love, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Joseph Koo’s Classic Melodies, Spring Ritual, Eulogy, The Legend of Mulan, The Butterfly Lovers and Storm Clouds.

Acknowledgement: Hong Kong Dance Company

Yan Xiaoqiang, Lecturer of Chinese Dance in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Yan studied at Taiyuan Arts School in Shanxi Province and Beijing Dance Academy, majoring in Chinese Classical Dance, and continued his research in Dance Performance with M.A. From 2008 to 2013, he was the dancer of Beijing Dance Theatre, where he cooperated with many renowned choreographers around the world and his repertoire range included Ballet, Contemporary dance, Chinese dance, Tai Chi, Kun Qu, Hip-hop and Drama Theatre. At the company, he performed in many top festivals and theatres in the world, including Sadler’s Wells, BAM Next Wave Arts Festival, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Holland Dance Festival, and Hong Kong Arts Festival etc. Yan is also an active choreographer, his creations such as Martlet, Isle, Metropolis, Autumn Thoughts, are critically acclaimed, and has been performed in National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing and HKAPA.

Pan Lingjuan graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy with a major in Chinese classical dance, and received scholarships three years in a row. Pan has won numerous prestigious awards in China, and has performed in France, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Oman, Korea, Belgium and Ireland. 
Pan joined HKDC in 2011 and has performed principal and featured roles in Two Swallows – Ode to Wu Guanzhong, Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, Evacuation Order, Plateau Bluebells, Pop Classic: Joseph Koo’s Dance Melodies 2013, Masquerade, The Legend of Mulan, The Butterfly Lovers, Storm Clouds, L’Amour Immortel and Chinese Hero: A Lone Exile.

Acknowledgement: Hong Kong Dance Company
Dancers’ wardrobe sponsored by

Li graduated from the Department of Chinese Folk Dance at the Beijing Dance Academy, majoring in Performance and Education.  He was later admitted to the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and was awarded a Masters of Fine Arts degree. During this period, he was awarded Scholarship to study at the prestigious Ailey School of Dance in New York.
Li joined HKDC in 2010. His recent major performances include Cang in Masquerade, Lip Fung in Storm Clouds, Father in The Legend of Munan 2015 and Ning Caichen in L’Amour Immortel. Invincible in Chinese Hero: a Lone Exile. In 2015, he was awarded “Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer” by the Hong Kong Dance Alliance in L’Amour Immortel.

Acknowledgement: Hong Kong Dance Company
Dancers’ wardrobe sponsored by

Born in Stockholm, Madeleine Onne established herself as a formidable artistic force to be reckoned with in the international dance world. As one of Sweden’s leading ballerinas, Onne was renowned for her engaging style and dramatic talent. As Principal Dancer of The Royal Swedish Ballet (RSB) from 1984 to 2002, she danced major roles in almost all classical repertoire as well as Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and Manon, John Cranko’s Taming of the Shrew and Onegin, John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Peer Gynt, Frederick Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée, and ballets by George Balanchine, Birgit Cullberg, Choo-san Goh, Jiří Kylián, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor and Maurice Béjart. Before joining Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) in 2009, she was Artistic Director of RSB for six years. At HKB, she has commissioned new ballets including Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty, Pär Isberg’s Pinocchio, Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Xin-peng Wang’s Dream of the Red Chamber, Peter Quanz’s Luminous, Jorma Elo’s Shape of Glow, Kinsun Chan’s Black on Black and Yuh Egami and Ricky Song-wei Hu’s Bolero. She has also initiated the popular series Ballet Classics for Children by Yuri Ng and expanded the Company’s repertoire with ballets by some of today’s most important choreographers, such as Alexei Ratmansky, Nacho Duato, Fei Bo, Nils Christie, Krzysztof Pastor and Christian Spuck. The repertoire will include ballets by Jiří Kylián and Christopher Wheeldon in the years to come. Under her leadership, HKB has embarked on 13 tours to China, Japan, Canada, and North and South America. Highlights include performances at The Joyce Theatre in New York in 2016, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2012 and 2014 and Fall For Dance Festival in NYC in 2012 and 2016. In addition to its international engagements, the Company has been invited to be one of the partner companies of the prestigious Prix de Lausanne competition. Onne also established exchange programmes between HKB and The Australian Ballet, The Royal Ballet of Flanders and RSB.Onne is passionate about every aspect of ballet, on and off stage. Throughout her career, she was on a number of the Swedish government’s committees responsible for awarding grants to the arts. In 1996, she founded an off-shoot company of RSB called Stockholm 59 Degrees North, which toured during RSB’s summer break. Stockholm 59 Degrees North, featuring 15 of RSB’s leading dancers, presented Swedish and international contemporary choreography. The group has won critical acclaim ever since its spectacular début at the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Massachusetts in 1997.As Artistic Director of RSB, Onne commissioned several ballets (both full-length and one-act ballets) by choreographers like Mats Ek, Christian Spuck, Krzysztof Pastor, Patrice Bart and Nils Christie, as well as a two-act ballet based on the famous children books about Pippi Longstocking choreographed by Pär Isberg and Karl Dyall. Onne also included in the repertoire ballets by Alexei Ratmansky, Nacho Duato, Jiří Kylian, Alonzo King, David Dawson, Mauro Bigonzetti, Christopher Hampson and Jean-Christophe Maillot, among others. During her tenure, Onne initiated RSB’s first tour back to China in 40 years. Additionally, Onne has been invited as a jury member for numerous international ballet competitions across Europe as well as in Russia, USA, Cuba, Canada, South America, Japan, Korea, Finland, France and China.Onne’s distinguished list of honours include, among others, the prestigious Royal medal Litteris et Artibus and The Royal Swedish Opera’s Gold Medal of Honour in recognition of her years as a Principal Dancer as well as Artistic Director for RSB. She is one of only five women to have received the title of “Dancer of the Swedish Royal Court” from HRH King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Born in Okinawa, Japan, Yuh Egami graduated from The Royal Ballet School in London and joined Hong Kong Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2002. He assumed the additional role of Répétiteur for the Company in 2014. With Hong Kong Ballet, Egami has danced in various works such as George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, Nacho Duato’s Castrati, Jorma Elo’s Shape of Glow, William Forsythe’s Steptext, Stephen Jefferies’ and Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Stanton Welch’s Clear and Natalie Weir’s Turandot, to name a few.Egami has presented his works at Hong Kong Ballet’s Choreographers’ Showcase, including Horn (2014) and White Lies (2012) with Ricky Song-wei Hu, OIOIO (2011), Mirage (2010), Collage of One (2008), Sakula (2007) and Kagé (2005). He has also contributed choreography to several full-length works including The Frog Prince-A Ballet Chinois (2013) together with Hu and as associate choreographer to Yuri Ng and Firecracker (2010) as an associate choreographer to Ng. Most recently, his work Bolero (2015) with Hu, won Outstanding Ensemble performance at the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2016.Egami also re-choreographed Ng’s Devil’s Tale for Architanz, Japan in 2015 and choreographed Sonographer (2011) and Firefly (2016) for E-side Dance Company in Hong Kong.

Born in Jiangxi, China, Ricky Song-wei Hu trained at Shanghai Dance School, LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts in Singapore and The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Hu joined Hong Kong Ballet as a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2008 and was named Coryphée in 2015.With Hong Kong Ballet, Hu has danced featured roles including Carabosse in Cynthia Harvey’s The Sleeping Beauty and Timur in Natalie Weir’s Turandot. He has also performed in both Stephen Jefferies’ and Terence Kohler’s The Nutcracker, Nina Ananiashvili’s Don Quixote, Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Pär Isberg’s Pinocchio, Nacho Duato’s Castrati, Fei Bo’s Shenren Chang and Edwaard Liang’s Sacred Thread.His choreographic works include Look Up 2.0 (2016) and Look Up (2015), by the invitation of National University of Singapore Arts Festival; Horn (2014) and White Lies (2012) with Yuh Egami, and Voicing (2011) and Twins (2010) for Hong Kong Ballet’s Choreographers’ Showcase; The Frog Prince– A Ballet Chinois (2013) as Associate Choreographer with Yuh Egami to Yuri Ng; Rush (2013), Play with Abandon (2012) for Hong Kong Arts Festival; Blank Space (2013) by the invitation of Re: Dance Theatre (RDT) in Singapore; and Lost in Memory (2013) for D. Lab Dance Shanghai. His work Bolero (2015) with Yuh Egami, performed by the Company, won Outstanding Ensemble Performance at the Hong Kong Dance Awards 2016. He also received the Award for Young Artist in Dance at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards in 2012.

Mike Orange first established himself as the guitarist and keyboardist of the Hong Kong indie rock band Chochukmo in 2008. He has since released two albums with the band and touring with Chochukmo in Taiwan, Mainland China and Southeast Asia. 

Mike has been active in the pop music scene since 2011, working with singers such as Sammi Cheng, Ivana Wong, Anthony Wong, HOCC, Fiona Sit and Ellen Loo for production, arrangement and live appearances. Mike first stepped into the field of music curating in 2014, by invitation of the West Kowloon Freespace Fest as music curator.

As a composer and music director, Mike has worked in different theatre productions like Lazy People are Always Busy (Windmill Grass Theatre), Lazy People Love Travelling (Windmill Grass Theatre)and The Black & Blue of a Man (Theatre Horizon). In 2016, Mike was invited as one of four selected composers by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to participate in the “New Works Forum : Choreographer x Composer Lab” with Hong Kong Ballet. Later that same year, Mike kicked off his solo project "Mike Orange & the Universe Travellers".