In September 2015, the West Kowloon Cultural District and Unlock Dancing Plaza invited Emmanuelle Vo-dinh to conduct a six-day workshop to fifteen professional dancers in Hong Kong, showing and sharing her choreographic process.
At the end of this intense week, she continued to invite four dancers from Hong Kong and Ong Yong Lock, artistic director of Unlock Dancing Plaza to visit Le Phare in March 2016. The commitment and enthusiasm in the continuing workshop inspired her to create a work with and for them, which became Simon says.
When I think of Simon says, I hark back to the eponymous childhood game ... and the game called Simon*, which we played during our teen years. What the two games have in common is the incredible adrenaline rush, the voluntary risk-taking, the wanting to experience new sensations. When extrapolated from the childhood game into adulthood, this energy becomes what we call competitivity, pushing the envelope, conquering the other person ... or others. As a communitary exercise which unwittingly reveals us to others, our Simon says will explore to near exhaustion the elements which comprise our humanity. — Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh
*Simon is a circularly shaped electronic board game with four large plaques of different colors, red, green, blue and yellow. Each color lights up and produces a specific sound. The player must press the color which has lit up, as fast as possible. The game repeats the same color and sound and then randomly adds another color and the player must repeat the sequence, faster and faster. Each time he or she does this correctly the game adds another color; the idea is to repeat the longest possible sequence of colors.
Choreographer & Performer | Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh |
Interpreters | James Yau, Joseph Lee, Tracy Wong, Carman Li |
Music | David Monceau, Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh |
Lighting Designer | Françoise Michel |
Programme Length | 50 minutes without intermission |
Production | Unlock Dancing Plaza, Le Phare, Centre choregraphique national du Havre Normandie |
Co-production | Le French May Festival, Hong Kong |
Touring Availability | On appointment |