While celebrating Hong Kong Ballet’ 45th anniversary season, Chinese-born resident choreographer of Ricky Hu, will premiere later this month his first full-length original ballet for the company entitled The Butterfly Lovers. Ricky spoke to ICONS about his unique background in traditional Chinese folkloric dance, which led to a surprising career with the city’s preeminent ballet company. He also spoke about his passion for other dance forms and creative collaborations with his artistic team and his wife.

ICONS: Can you tell us about your training and transition into being a choreographer?

Ricky Hu: My background is atypical for a ballet career. I started learning Chinese folk dance in high school. After graduating from the university as a contemporary dance major, I joined the company [Hong Kong Ballet] and I finally started to learn ballet.

ICONS: How did you end up becoming Choreographer-in-Residence at Hong Kong Ballet?

RH: When I joined the company, it became clear to me that I would not be given prince roles because I had not developed strong ballet technique at a young age. However, a good classical ballet technique helped me dance better contemporary ballet works.

In addition, every year in the company, we have a choreography workshop, which gives the dancers the opportunity to choreograph. I started to create chamber dance pieces during my second year with the company. Gradually, the executive director saw my potential as a choreographer. I was given further opportunities to develop my work and create longer pieces.

My ten-minute pieces became thirty minutes and then forty minutes long. And then in 2019, my position changed from dancer into resident choreographer at Hong Kong Ballet.

ICONS: Tell us about your training experiences in China and the US and how they impacted you as a choreographer.

RH: After I studied Chinese folk dance at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, I received a scholarship to the Alvin Ailey School’s summer intensive program in New York City. That led to my new experiences in American contemporary dance, yet I still didn’t know much about ballet.  

At the Ailey School, we could audition for different choreographers who offered varying and contrasting dance techniques and movement languages. I finally realized that training in ballet, contemporary, and jazz is really important.

Although I had sporadic encounters with classical ballet technique, my teachers and peers encouraged me to audition for ballet companies so that my training would become solid and reliable. It would have been the only path for me to become a professional dancer and choreographer and express myself with confidence. This is why I auditioned for Hong Kong Ballet. I was lucky and I got a job. All of those learning experiences are present in my work as a choreographer: Chinese folk dance, contemporary, and ballet.

ICONS: When you create a new work, how do you begin to choreograph?

RH: Music is very important to me: it’s where I get my inspiration. Often, I listen to really beautiful music and I can imagine movement to that music. Other times, I already have a clear idea about the dance and then I just need to choose music.

ICONS: When you choreograph, do you generate movement in advance on your own or do you create movement on the dancers in the studio?

RH: I usually prepare something basic in terms of movement, and then I go into the studio and work with the dancers on more material.

However, The Butterfly Lovers is a full-length ballet, and I have to prepare very well in advance because we don’t have much rehearsal time in the studio. I know what the dancers can do and I feel confident without elaborate experimentation.

ICONS: Why did you choose the legend of the butterfly lovers for your next work? What drew you to that story?

RH: Actually, it was Septime [Webre], our artistic director. He suggested that I create something really Chinese and about Chinese ballet. And when he talked about The Butterfly Lovers [with a plot similar to Romeo and Juliet], I quite liked the story because it’s simple. It doesn't have many characters and complex relationships. We just follow these two people, and we don't have to work so hard to explain the relationship.

A new element in this creative process is that I am choreographing this production with my wife. We both have a Chinese folkdance background, so we thought it was a good idea to mix Chinese folkdance elements with contemporary dance and ballet technique.

ICONS: What is it like working choreographically so closely with your wife, Mai Jingwen?

RH: Mai Jingwen and I always worked separately as choreographers before Covid. Since we live in Shenzhen, China, I couldn’t go to work in Hong Kong during the pandemic. We were confined to our home, so we both started working remotely on television and commercial dance. We created a few short dance pieces and discovered that we really complement each other:  She is very sensitive to music, and I'm very sensitive to the space. The challenges during the pandemic turned out to be really good for our artistic partnership.

ICONS: You have a really big team for The Butterfly Lovers. You have a new score and sets by Tom Yip. Tell us what's exciting and what's challenging about the collaboration.

RH: We have an Academy Award-winning visual designer, Tim Yip, (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Webre’s The Great Gatsby) whose visually stunning sets and costumes bring to life a world with traditional and modern elements. We were lucky to work with the acclaimed young Chinese composer Tian Mi in collaboration with Macao Orchestra, who will be creating an original score. It’s exciting to have this great team for our massive project. It’s the first time that my wife and I have done a full-length ballet, so we need to be well-prepared before we begin working. For instance, my wife is writing the script, and we need to be very clear about what we need from the composer and the designer.

ICONS: What's your favorite part of being a choreographer?

RH: It's creating beauty on the stage. I'm very interested in how to use the space, not only creating movement and spacing of the dancers, but the overall look. That's why I like to use really big sets because I can use the stage to present something breathtaking. Every time I have an idea that materializes on stage, it is a beautiful moment for me.

ICONS: What would you tell a younger version of Ricky if you were starting out your career as a choreographer?

RH: To myself fifteen years ago I would say to be more open-minded, to go out more because very sadly there are things I’ve never tried. I would say go out and feel different things in life. Hong Kong is good, but I don't think it's enough. I would say go back to New York, go to Europe, join different companies, and create as many dance pieces as possible. That’s a good start for now.

ICONS: What do you want our readers to know about your work as a choreographer?

RH: Butterfly Lovers is me because this ballet expresses my artistic background and all of my experiences. It incorporates original Chinese folk dance, classical ballet, and contemporary dance. This ballet encompasses all that I know and I cannot wait to show it to the audience.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION OF RICKY HU: https://www.hkphil.org/artist/ricky-hu

SUPPORTIVE IMAGES: Photography © Conrad Dy-Liacco © Tony Luk, Hong Kong Ballet dancers pictured in Ricky Hu’s ballets Last Song (2022) and Rite of Spring (2019). Additional photography  © Dean Alexander and the Design Army  –images on the October 2024 newsletter template.

VIDEO TRAILER OF THE UPCOMING WORK: 

INTERVIEW'S CREATIVE TEAM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

Interviewer: Charles Scheland

Executive Content Editor: Camilla Acquista

Executive Assistant: Charles Scheland

Executive Director: Vladimir Angelov

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