- ^ 2024/25 The Arts Talents Internship Matching Programme is supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council
Born in Malaysia, Ong Yong Lock is now a choreographer, a performer, and an educator. Ong is a founder member of South 'ASLI' Dance Workshop (SADW) and served as the Artistic Director between 1997 and 2001. In 2002, Ong founded the Unlock Dancing Plaza with Elsie Chau. He had been the Artistic Director for almost two decades since its establishment in 2002 and has been dedicated to promoting and popularizing of modern dance. In 2022, he has taken on the role Creative Director (Public Engagement), focusing on outreach and community projects.
Ong joined the Hong Kong Dance Company and the City Contemporary Dance Company in 1989 and 1993 respectively. In 1998 , Ong joined the Expressions Dance Company in Brisbane (Australia) to perform in Brisbane Festival. In the same year, he was invited to teach modern dance in Japan and Malaysia as well as choreographed for the 19th Chinese Dance Festival in Malaysia. In 2000, Ong was invited to perform in the East Dragon Dance Festival and World Dance in Japan. In 2002, he won the “Hong Kong Dance Awards” presented by The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in recognition of his lithe choreography of ballet 4 In. Since then, he has been appointed as an art advisor of dance by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He was also the recipient of the “Award for Best Artist (Dance)” from the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2014.
Ong is active in choreography. His works were featured in Asian Art Festival, International Sino Dance Week, Malaysian Chinese Dance Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Hong Kong Dance Festival and 20th International Academy of Dance Festival. He had rich experiences of working in partnership with a wide range of organizations such as Hong Kong Dance Company, City Contemporary Dance Company, Beijing Dance/LDTX, Guangdong Modern Dance Company, Xiamen Modern Dance, The Hong Kong Ballet, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and The Queensland University of Technology. Ong's highly acclaimed full-length works include 10 Nights' Wanderings, Whispering of Love, Love Sick, Kung Fu and Tofu, Chopin VS CA, Walls 44 and Wanderer. In particular, Wanderer received "Outstanding Achievement in Independent Production" at Hong Kong Dance Awards 2015.
In recent years, Ong has been actively promoting #DANCELESS community engagement project and creates a series of works which encourage public participation in dance. #DANCELESS 03 – bolero is a success which has been invited to perform in different international dance festivals. At present, over 200 public participants have taken part in it.
Photography: eddielilil @tinysotiny.co
Joseph Lee is a choreographer, performer, and performance curator. Lee graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and completed a Master of Arts in Contemporary Dance at London Contemporary Dance School and was appointed as the Artistic Director of Unlock Dancing Plaza in 2022.
His curatorial interests delve into unexplored realms of local contemporary dance, emphasizing knowledge dissemination, cross-cultural dialogues, and community-based dance projects. Through mediums like live performances, videos, and writing, Lee seeks to redefine dance's role in contemporary contexts by deconstructing body imagery and symbols, guiding audiences towards introspection.
Lee's works often challenge norms, exploring themes like pop culture, queer identity, and the intersection of dance and visuals. Notable pieces like A Dance For You With the Song That Made You Cry probe the emotional resonance of pop music in dance, while the Slow Dance series subverts traditional performance dynamics. Through creations like Folding Echoes and this works has three possible titles:, Lee reshapes language and body image, inviting viewers to question perceptions and expectations. His video collaborations, such as Two Solos, One Dance, Three Frames and Slow Dance (Zoomed In) with Kitty Yeung, further expand the boundaries of his artistic exploration. His video works have been selected in the well-known experimental film festival like EXiS (Seoul), Image Forum Festival (Tokyo), South Taiwan Film Festival (Taiwan) and so on.
Lee is the recipient of the Award for Young Artist presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2017.
Photography: eddielilil @tinysotiny.co