Pewan Chow is a choreographer, performer, and the artistic director of Passoverdance since 2008. She has created a range of works, and has received the Hong Kong Dance Awards in 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2018 for her pieces Homecoming, Maze, In Search of Space in a Cramped City: A Moving Exhibition – Urban Bottling, and In Search of Motion in a Virtual City: Grey Area, respectively. Chow was awarded Artist of the Year (Dance) by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2017 and awarded Honorary Fellow by The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) in 2022.

We spoke to her about her newest piece Law of Linkage created for the two dancers Gigi Yang from Passoverdance and Andreas Holme Kjærland from NSP 2.

Please tell us about yourself

I am a choreographer from Hong Kong. I graduated from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts before I went to London Contemporary Dance School. I obtained my master at the Laban Dance Centre in London. I later returned to Hong Kong to start teaching at the academy, where I remained for seventeen years. Besides technique I taught all the creative aspects of the subject, such as composition, improvisation, and repertoire.

In 2008 I established my own company, Passoverdance. I am a very shy and quiet person, that is why I like dance. Normally I don’t speak that much, but through my choreography I feel that I can share much more.  

Can you say something about the performance? What is “Law of linkage”?  From where did you take inspiration?

I borrowed the title from my son’s dissertation. He studied animation, and this was the name of his final project. I read the name again and again, and I started wondering about what he meant by “Law of linkage”. I never had the chance to ask him, but I find it quite interesting because every time you hear “law” of something, you think about a rule or a theorem, or about genetics. But when I watched his animations there is nothing about that. I think that he was trying to reinvent connectivity.

I found this very interesting. How do you reinvent connectivity? Especially in a non-physical sense, in a spiritual way. That inspired me to start thinking about this piece. Three years ago, I lost my son. I then reread his thesis many times. My son was also a painter, and I looked at his paintings and animations. He had Asperger’s and was a very quiet person. He was very attached to me, but at the same time he really wanted to connect to other people. He always felt that life was solitary. I believe that is why he started this research.

What does it mean to connect in a non-physical way? I found three words as to how we can stay connected in a non-physical sense: miss, hope and bless. To miss someone forms the base of every relationship; whenever you experience something new you would like to share that experience with your special person. This is a vital element Law of Linkage. You hope that one day you will see each other again. That you will see your partner again or visit your family again. Hope makes you go forward. When you are missing someone, you want that person to be in a good shape, to be blessed.

I

Wish to fly

          to

          the Temple,

Beholding

your dance and fluttering

with

Infinite joy!

I wrote this poem two years ago, in Chinese. It is about 凄美, or melancholia. A kind of beauty that evokes strong emotions or a sense of melancholy.

To create this piece was a process of healing. It has been a long process of waiting and facing myself to get the courage to face my loss again. This is the most personal piece I have ever made. It is not based on research, but on my own personal feelings, it is very honest. It is about separation, but still finding a linkage.

Can you say something about your working method? How do you develop a dance piece?

I usually take one year to create a new piece, but this time the piece took shape in two weeks. This is a new record for me! I was very nervous before I came here because I had a strong feeling about what I wanted to achieve. Originally, I didn’t have the seesaw, but the idea kept coming back to me, so I decided I wanted to have it on the stage. This element is helping me get the feeling and the atmosphere I wanted to achieve.

I work very closely with the artists, taking the movements directly from their bodies. We improvise, and they create a lot of movement material for me. I give them tasks or images, and we keep digging into movements, concepts, and ideas. I usually have a very clear structure. This time I only had a strong feeling about what I wanted to achieve. I didn’t want to tell a story, I just kept researching about how I could express this kind of beauty that evokes strong emotions or a sense of melancholy. Like an impressionist painting where people are walking in the fog, and where you can see them, and you don’t see them at the same time.

You are creating a duet with one dancer from POD and one from NSP 2. How is that?

I used to work only with dancers that I trust because that is easy, but in recent years I enjoy working with dancers that I don’t know. Even though its challenging and it doesn’t work every time, it helps opening up and finding more possibilities. I think it’s really nice. I know Gigi from before and knew that I wanted her in my piece, but it is of course the first time I work with Andreas. It has worked very well, and he is a wonderful dancer. I think he is perfect for this piece.