My dear friend Hofan Chau invited me to work on a project with Symbiotic Dance Troupe. The title of the project was called "Chords with Circle of Life 2011". Symbiotic Dance Troupe include performers with different types of disabilities. Which now I see it as their beautiful individual abilities. Four out of five performers that I worked with are wheelchair users and all of them were intellectually different.
It was my first time working with other performers who has physical and mental challenges. I was already 6 month pregnant when we started the rehearsal. Every rehearsal, without a day of failure, they welcomed me with great smiles, cheers and big hugs. It was very strange to measure one's ability and disabilities. Because I do not speak their language, (Cantonese) so in a way, I had a disability in communicating. And as the time goes by, my physical ability was limited as well because of my big belly pregnancy! So in many ways, I did experience the same situations as they might have experiences in their everyday life. For example, having a difficulty in putting a socks on! or communicating what you really want to do or to say to the other person. We had a two months rehearsal time with them before the show.
Together with the collaboration of the musician Wong Hin Yan and the choreographer/ director Hofan, we created a piece that is unforgettable!
-working in progress photo by Hofan Chau-
