Dancing with Echoes: In Conversation with Yang Yuntao and dancers from Hong Kong Dance Company

Co-presented by M+ Live Art and Hong Kong Dance Company (HKDance) from January to March 2026, M+ Live Art x HKDance: Echoing Shanshui activated Lee Ufan’s work Relatum–The Mirror Road (2021/2024), Isamu Noguchi’s hot-dipped galvanised steel sculptures, and Vivian Wang and Aqilah Misuary’s sound installation Drawn to Light (2024), all of which are on view at the exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals at the museum’s South Galleries.

Choreographed by the artistic director of HKDance Yang Yuntao M. H. and HKDance performers, the performers started at the gallery which houses Lee’s Relatum–The Mirror Road. They then led audiences to a different gallery featuring Noguchi’s sculptures and Wang and Misuary’s sound installation, where they paired up with another performer for a duo performance. The performances aimed to create a poetic journey to explore the passage of time and its dialogues between space and time, and vision and imagination, providing an alternative way to look at contemporary arts.

Assistant Curator Dorothea Lam speaks with Yang Yuntao and performers Lee Chia-ming, Liu Wai-yee, and Ng Ka-ling about the conceptual frameworks behind the collaborative performance, reflecting on the choreography concepts.

Dorothea Lam: When we first discussed this collaboration, we invited all of you to visit the exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals, particularly Lee Ufan’s Relatum—The Mirror Road (2021/2024) and Isamu Noguchi’s hot-dipped galvanised steel sculptures. What did you think about the works and the South Galleries when you first encountered them?

Yang Yuntao (YYT): To me, the quietude in the galleries, especially the room that houses Mr. Lee’s Relatum—The Mirror Road (2021/2024) surprised me. I remembered that it was the day after a storm in Hong Kong, and the quietness created a huge contrast. The gloomy sky and dimmed lighting put a spotlight on the reflective surface of the mirror and the pebbles. In the other gallery which displays Mr. Nogcuhi’s sculptures, the reflection of the sunlight on the floor creates warm tones with stripes of shadows. The works looked like a natural stage for a performance.

Ng Ka-ling (NKL): Indeed, the galleries were very quiet. You could hear people stepping on the pebbles, creating a Zen-like, peaceful sound. It feels very different from being at the atrium of the museum, away from the crowds.

You invited the performers to collaborate with you on the choreography. How did you come up with the idea of having pairs of performers, and how did you pair them up?

YYT: Considering that this is a live art performance inside a museum gallery, I thought it would be a great opportunity for the performers to create this piece of work through improvisation, allowing the body to express itself in dialogue with the poetic environment. Through improvisation, the work is not just a performance, but a piece that is co-created by the performers, the audience, and the environment. The performers react to the environment, making this a rather collaborative creation involving every living element. But, of course, we did rehearsals based on the concepts of the performers. The performers made changes and improvised based on the choreographed idea. Thus, it is simultaneously improvisation and choreographed work. It’s very experimental yet fulfilling for the performers.

Regarding the idea of pairs, it originated when we first visited the two galleries in the exhibition. We started thinking about how we could connect two separate galleries in one performance and entice audiences to experience the performance in both galleries. Alongside the curatorial team, we thought it would be great for the performers to lead our audience from one gallery to the other, immersing themselves completely in the journey of the performance. Making use of the long black gallery in between these two galleries, it was the perfect spot to pause and poetically lead the audience from feeling the quietness in the first gallery [with Lee Ufan’s work] to the sound installation [by Vivian Wang and Aqilah Misuary] in the second gallery. We were playing with different ways of seeing contemporary dance performances.

I understand that you developed your choreography on-site in the galleries alongside the artwork during rehearsal rather than at the dance studio. How did the two pairs collaborate on the choreography together?

Lee Chia-ming (LCM): The minimalism of the artworks and the quietness of the galleries made me reflect on my memories about time. The unknown of the next second and the flow of time made me encounter and embrace uncertainties. The serendipity between people and the environment became the leaping notes in the score of time, composed by the distance and misalignment with one another.

Liu Wai-yee (LWY): Since this was an improvisational piece, the space, time, and existence of different people created a different spark every time we rehearsed or performed. We received live feedback from the environment and audience, expressing emotions through our bodies. This is something we cannot truly experience through carefully choreographed movements at the dance studio. By rehearsing on site, we get to experience the flow of time and the change of environment in the gallery, allowing us to create a unique dialogue with the artworks.

We paired up as duos for this performance. Though Chia-ming and I were performing in different galleries for the first half of the performance, we interacted with each other and created a full experience for the audience during the second half of the performance.

NKL: I paired up with Ho-fei. We didn’t perform in the same gallery, we performed in two different galleries, one after the other. We are familiar with the way we express ourselves through our bodies and that helped us communicate and understand each other’s ideas, creating a dynamic journey that reflects the works while engaging the audience. If I performed an expressive move, Ho-fei would perform a more neutral and static move. If I performed a strong move and engaged with either the work or the audience, Ho-fei would perform a gentle move to balance our ‘journey’, and vice versa.

Looking back at your performances, I noticed Chia-ming and Wai-yee incorporated some Chinese dance elements into the piece. Can you elaborate more on it?

LCM: This is closely related to my own training. The materials and ideas I draw upon during my performance lean mostly towards Eastern body language.

LWY: I was also trained in Chinese dance for a long time. Years of immersing myself in Chinese dance and Chinese martial arts have left unique marks on my body. Sometimes the movements are instinctive, especially when I work on improvisation pieces.

I noticed that the four performers chose different kinds of costumes for the performance. Where were the considerations behind this? 

LCM: As someone who travels and experiences the world—I am from Taiwan and relocated to Hong Kong—I chose to wear a costume that is deconstructed to allow free movements, whether sitting, lying down, leaping, or being still. Garments are not always clean and tidy when you’re on an adventure. To me, every performance encountering different audiences is indeed a new adventure.

LWY: I chose an all-black jumpsuit. To me, black gives a sense of solidity. The simplicity of the outfit, without ostentatious embellishments and silhouettes, that perfectly reflects the feeling nature gives us, a sense of authentic existence, and quietude to accompany.

The gallery with Lee Ufan’s installation is spacious and the work features a reflective surface. How did you connect all these elements in your performance?

LWY: In this gallery, the pebbles, the mirror, and the reflections of sunlight gave me a sense of cleanliness. Every step on the pebbles makes a different sound, resonating throughout the space. The mirror was like a waterfall to me, flowing through the space.  In some ways, this reminded me of life itself. Though we may encounter various setbacks, there are still beautiful moments, and no matter what we face, time continues to push us forward.

How did you connect the Hong Kong cityscape outside to Isamu Noguchi’s sculptures? The room with Noguchi’s sculptures is the only one that features a sound piece. How did you connect the various elements when designing your choreography, especially in relation to the passage of time?

LCM: Similar to walking, we rarely and consciously notice the rhythm of our steps. But when you become present and aware, the process of this improvisational performance is just like taking a walk on a nice windy afternoon with the warm sunlight. It was as fluid as the flow of time, responding to the sound installation. Though the music intensifies when you get closer to the sensors, it is like the sound of nature, surprising you at every corner of the unknown.

NKL: During the performance, the audience gathered around the artworks and me. At that moment, I felt that Noguchi’s sculptures were like skyscrapers alongside Victoria Harbour, and the people surrounding them were like the other objects in the world. The only difference was that time slowed down. Though I lost control over the ‘objects’, I controlled the passage of time. I controlled the rhythm of the dialogues between the audience and me.

HKDance also premiered a performance that was inspired by shanshui in 2021. How was the choreography different, and how did you extend the abstract idea of shanshui into a performing art form?

YYT: The 2021 work Shan Shui: An Ode to Nature was fully choreographed before the performance, while this performance is mainly an improvisational dance. Both are forms of physical expression, presenting abstract concepts and emotions through the body. Performers need to control the flow of time for this performance, given that we didn’t use any background music or props. We wanted to use only our bodies to capture the attention of the audience and guide them to immerse themselves into the passage of time.

How did you bring together two different art forms, performance and shanshui, as envisioned in our interdisciplinary exhibition, while imbuing meaning to the visitors?

YYT: To me, the most important thing about the performing arts is to ‘see with your own eyes’. This action of ‘seeing’ should focus on the audience’s feelings and immediate response. I am delighted to have this collaboration with such a meaningful art form. The inclusion of the two galleries allowed the performance to be presented more concretely. The inclusivity of this environmental dance allowed the audience to experience more than just simple physical movements, but something deeper. Thank you for this collaboration that broadened my horizons and expanded my thinking in developing our practice.