Cover The dance group in rehearsal (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
The dance group in rehearsal (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
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This month, ErGao Dance Production Group debuts ‘Hide and Seek’, a contemporary dance production that explores the creative potential of blind people
The usually brightly lit white cube F Hall Studio at Tai Kwun will be transformed into a dark, narrow massage parlour this month. But instead of the usual calming music and masseurs one would expect of a spa, visitors will be welcomed by two dancers: Chinese choreographer and dancer He Qiwo, who performs under the name ErGao; and Theo Wang Zeyu, a Guangzhou-based masseur-turned-performer who is blind. The two will deliver an immersive, interactive dance performance called Hide and Seek. It runs from March 14 to 16 as part of this year’s No Limits, an arts programme co-presented by the Hong Kong Arts Festival which promotes inclusiveness through the arts.
The production sees audience members experiencing the world from Wang’s perspective, hindered by the darkness of the space and having to find their way around by sound, touch, smell and interaction with the surroundings and dancers.
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Above The dancers in rehearsal (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
The dancers in rehearsal (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
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“The show reverses the roles of blind people, who are often considered ‘minorities’ in society, and people with normal vision,” ErGao explains. “Now, I put us all in this same space, and those who aren’t blind are suddenly the ‘minority’, as the darkness makes it easier for Zeyu to navigate than the rest of us. I want to show that being a ‘minority’ is only a social construct and a matter of perception.”
ErGao and his ErGao Dance Production Group team in Shunde (previously based in Guangzhou) have been creating new conversations about cultural and gender identities since the contemporary dance company was founded in 2007. For example, Disco-Teca, which featured at London’s Queer East festival last year, examines the ecstatic disco moves that indicated the opening up of early 1980s China to the world, and the sexual liberation and gender identity that Chinese society used to shun.
Then in 2023, he created Butterfly Island, a dance piece paired with installation art in Tai Kwun where the Gen Z and Millennial dancers’ jerky moves are intended to express themes of diaspora and identity exploration. It is these thought-provoking productions and the company’s community art and education programmes that make ErGao Dance Production Group one of the most noteworthy contemporary dance groups from mainland China.
Above The group leads a range of workshops (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
The group leads a range of workshops (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
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Hide and Seek stems from a project that started in 2022. One of ErGao’s adult students, who separately ran a community dance group for individuals with physical disabilities, asked if they could use ErGao’s studio to practise. It was the height of the pandemic, and many dance studios in Guangzhou, where ErGao was based, had closed down.
“Suddenly, I found myself anxious,” ErGao recalls. “I had no experience working with dancers with disabilities and making sure that their needs were taken care of at my studio. My first encounter with people with visual impairment was at blind massage parlours. Their services are known to be more affordable [even though] they have a greater sense of touch and therefore better skills than sighted masseurs. Sadly, our society often thinks of them as masseurs or palm readers and nothing else.”
He also felt there was generally a very limited understanding of people with disabilities in Guangzhou: the public transport wasn’t user-friendly for wheelchairs, and taxis sometimes refused to take wheelchair users.
Above The group leads a range of workshops (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
The group leads a range of workshops (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
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ErGao agreed to his student’s request, thinking that supporting dancers with disabilities would be a way to start changing the conversation about diversity. He immediately installed wheelchair ramps at the studio and bought bathroom equipment that he thought would be useful for his new students. Gradually, word spread and more students from the neighbourhood, both with and without physical disabilities, joined his classes, forming a community of dancers bonded by friendship and a common interest in exploring new bodily expressions.
From dance classes to performances, ErGao and these students kept pushing the boundaries of what people with disabilities can do on stage. In 2023, ErGao took five of them to Shanghai to perform; on their way to the performance venue, they were struck by a particular moment of kindness. “The taxi driver said he would have given us a free ride if he knew earlier that we were performing artists. I was very touched, so I invited him to our show,” says ErGao. “It is through conversations like these that people can connect and understand one another. Dance can create these opportunities.”
Above The dance group in rehearsal (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
The dance group in rehearsal (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
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That same year, one of ErGao’s fellow performers died. “My friend was collaborating with Zeyu on a small installation exhibition that spotlights the perspectives of blind people—I didn’t yet know him,” says ErGao. “But his death came suddenly and he didn’t even live to see the opening of the show.” ErGao reached out to Wang and they started brainstorming Hide and Seek together. While the dance production isn’t the same as the exhibition Wang had been working on, the two felt it was a way of continuing their friend’s vision and work.
Working on the choreography was a new experience for them. “It was very different from how I rehearse shows with sighted dancers. Zeyu cannot see and cannot memorise the steps; his movements would have looked very forced. Instead, his part was more impromptu movements based on his emotions,” ErGao explains.
In the early days, it took Wang and ErGao a while to understand one another’s ways of communication and navigating the world. “When he first visited my studio, he was touching some props made of glass and I was so worried. Then he stomped the ground—I didn’t understand what he was doing. Later, I realised that he had to feel his surroundings to map out the area,” says ErGao. Another time, when they were eating, ErGao was worried that Wang wouldn’t be able to help himself, so filled his bowl for him with items, it turned out, Wang didn’t like. Moments like these made ErGao realise their collaboration was more than just a dance production—it was teaching them how to understand each other’s perspectives.
Above ErGao (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
ErGao (Image: courtesy of ErGao Dance Production)
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More recently, the two have taken their project outside the studio. “Instead of training with our doors shut, we brought dance into the community,” says ErGao, explaining that they have organised dance and massage workshops in villages, schools and fine arts museums in different cities. “We even held a disco session for blind people in Shenzhen.” They made documentaries about these experiences, and the documentary inspired some of their dance moves in Hide and Seek. When No Limits invited them to Hong Kong, they felt it was a great opportunity to take the work to this city.
ErGao says, “This Hong Kong premiere is an important starting point to inspire more community or performing arts events that will start conversations about diversity, be that about transgender inclusiveness or the exploration of your individual identity in a society.”
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
