'Hong Kong Week 2025' arrives in Seoul with 14 programs across the arts
This fall, some of Hong Kong’s leading performing arts companies will be in Seoul for “Hong Kong Week 2025 @Seoul,” a monthlong festival of dance, music and visual culture.
The festival will take place Sept. 26-Oct. 25 at major venues across the capital, including the Seoul Arts Center and the National Theater of Korea.
Dance will anchor the program, with five productions highlighting Hong Kong’s distinct identity and its place in contemporary choreography.
The festival opens with the Hong Kong Ballet’s “Romeo + Juliet” (Sept. 26 and 27) at the National Theater’s Haeorum Theater. Choreographed by artistic director Septime Webre, the production transports Shakespeare’s tragedy to 1960s Hong Kong, where winding alleyways and luxurious cheongsams meet Prokofiev’s score and the dynamic energy of kung fu. This is the company’s first visit to Korea since its founding in 1979.
Two other acclaimed dance works are also in the lineup. The Hong Kong Dance Company will stage “A Dance of Celestial Rhythms” (Oct. 18 and 19) at the National Gugak Center. A large-scale work that reimagines the traditional concept of seasonal cycles through light, sound and multimedia, the dance explores themes of time and renewal.
The City Contemporary Dance Company, meanwhile, will present “Mr. Blank 2.0” (Oct. 24 and 25) at Gangdong Arts Center. A production that deploys glass walls and live cameras to blur the boundary between stage and audience, the piece reflects the fragmented lives of modern urban dwellers.
Another highlight is Labora Terry Arts’ "Travel of the Soul: Echoes After Time” (Oct. 17-19). To be staged at Arko Arts Theater, it is a contemporary reinterpretation of the Cantonese folk ritual “Breaking the Hell’s Gate,” rooted in themes of life and death.
The CollabAsia Project, a joint initiative between the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Sungkyunkwan University, will, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, showcase a work created during a two-week residency. Fifteen students from HKAPA and 12 from SKKU will collaborate on a new piece co-choreographed by Leila McMillan and Kim Na-ye. The project will also include outdoor performances in the Daehangno district on Oct. 3-4.
Since 2019, Hong Kong Week has brought the city’s artists to mainland China and major cities abroad, most recently Bangkok in 2023. This year marks its Seoul debut, with 14 programs spanning dance, music, film, painting, comics and fashion, curated by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
hwangdh@heraldcorp.com
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