The program that the Hong Kong Ballet presented at the Joyce Theater showed a company that is disciplined and technically accomplished. The opening pas de trois from A Room of Her Own by Fei Bo had Yu-yao Liu in a blue gown sitting at a desk writing. It’s an homage to Virginia Woolf and the other two dancers may have been characters she was writing about or memories from her past. She interacted with Miao-miao Liu and her partner, Jia-bo Li in a series of brief vignettes that were all fraught with much coming together and splitting apart. It had lots of lovely movement, especially from Miao-miao Liu. Unfortunately, it failed to create much emotional impact. Either the dancers were not adequately communicating the story or there simply wasn’t enough context to make us care about their struggle. Mostly the suffered from being too forgettable as there was no real tension or drama.
Nacho Duato’s all male ballet Castrati followed and I have to admit that I never before thought that castration could be a viable subject for a ballet. The accompanying music was mostly baroque arias that were originally created for castrato singers. It began with a group of men wearing black cassocks and the choreography made powerful visual effects out of the costumes. By having the men jump and sweep their legs they created shapes in the air that accentuated the music. The costuming also gave strong overlay of religion which played an important part in the ritual practice of castration. Shen Jie played the young man who was eventually castrated with a fairly convincing dramatic flair. He was understandably reluctant. While some of the gestures began to be repetitive the choreography generally fit well with the music. The culmination had him emerging from a scrum with bloody hands signifying that the deed was done.