photos by David Leung

This is 施源, Nonie and Dominique’s son. What a wonderful gift to give a child – the gift of playing around with bodies. And it’s also really good training for us adults too, to be constantly aware not only of ourselves and what we are doing, but of the whole space and what is going on around us!

With each person, you develop a really unique rapport. I really enjoy dancing with Force, because when I dance with him, we are always surprised. It’s a truly wonderful thing, to have a friend that inspires something new in you, every time.

Contact improvisation has become a place where I check-in with myself, every few months or so, and see how I have evolved as a mover. On some level, I also think Contact improv informs me about my tai-chi push hands. Actually, it is tai chi push hands, except you can use your cheek, your armpit, your back, your butt and all these surfaces to relate to the other person.

In tai chi, one thing we are working on these days is not to think of the opponent as the “other”, but accept your partner as another aspect of yourself. And so, when I dance contact, nowadays I’m not only trying to react to the other person, but really sense them, deep deep inside.

—-

Links and references

• Kongtact Square runs bi-weekly contact improvisation jams at CCDC in Hong Kong. You can check out the schedule on their facebook page.
• Check out this youtube - contact improv with Sophie, 2 years 4 months

(DIY instructions for sealing your loved ones up)

“This reminds me of a theatre exercise 何應豐 made us do the week before,” I told him. “We had a surreal scenario, with a doctor and a mother; where we drop out of real time into an imaginary space, where suddenly the mother can tell the doctor all these things she would never tell him in real life. ” (Sort of like that scene in Requiem from Dream, where we see the character take the gun from the police officer in the diner; only to realise later that it was all in the character’s head…)

It turns out that in real life, you can have scenarios like that!

Hinyan made a grasping gesture with his right hand and pointed at me. Did he want something? It took me a while before I figure out that he was trying to tell me to take this opportunity to go ahead and talk.

—

Instructions

You can seal your loved ones up too! Or, for those of you who are actually interested in making masks, here’s a short “how to” and where to find the materials in Hong Kong to build a plaster lifecast.

There are many ways to go about building a mask. Some people just go ahead and papier mache a balloon, others sculpt on top of a store-bought plastic mask. We decided to go full out and build upon a plaster mould of our performer’s faces. This way, the our characters would evolve out of the actual performers.

(a) Building the plaster negative

You will need:

• Vaseline - we opted for the cheap store-based brand at Watson’s, $16.90
• Plastic tablecloth sheet - to cover the person; also useful later to cover surfaces when sculpting, papier mache-ing or painting
• Plaster strips - available at art stores such as Arts Supplies Professional (G/F, 75-77 Bute Street, Mong Kok) 5″ x 4 yards@$38; or Craft Supplies Store (173 Sai Yee Street, Mong Kok ) 4″ x 4 yards@$36. One person uses about 2/3 of a roll.
• Plastic tub – e.g., used ice-cream container; to dip the plastic strips in.

There are many videos and tutorials on the web as to how to do this, but the basic theory is:

• Cut the plaster bandage into strips (I personally like 1″ wide strips, but triangular ones are good also for getting curves)
• Settle your friend down (tie hair back, plastic sheet) and smear his face thick with Vaseline (particulary eyebrows and eye-lashes).
• Dip the plaster bandage in water, wipe on edge of tub to drain excess water. Place on friend’s face.
• Smooth the bandage with fingers. For the eye areas, you want to place the strips diagonally (starting from the brow, the same angle as how a pirate’s eye-patch would be). You can press harder along the ridge of the eye-socket (the bony part – lots of wonderful pressure points there),  but when you smooth the part on the eyelid, brush gently from tear-duct outwards. If you do it on yourself a couple of times you’ll know what I mean. Similarly, for the lip areas, diagonals work wonders. Leave nose-holes for your friend.
• Finish one layer, then build another. You want about 4-5 layers. It should dry fairly quickly, and your friend should feel slightly warm as the plaster sets.
• Have the friend wriggle his or her face, and gently ease out the mask. Wash up.

(b) Casting the life-mask

Some people actually just go ahead and build on top of this plaster negative, but we wanted a bit more precision, so we decided to pour a plaster positive of the performers.

If you turn your mask upside down, it will look like a shallow bowl. You will notice that there are some parts that you couldn’t get too deep (e.g., the forehead because of the hairline, and maybe the chin). You want to build that part up with extra bandages to maximise the depth of the face and get the cheekbones.

You will also need:

• Plaster of Paris (powder form). This was not avaliable at the craft shop in Mong Kok, but they gave me the address of a store that specialises in molding material. (翔峰行 / Bor’s Co. Ltd – 8A Tung Fong Street, Yau Ma Tei)
• Something to hold the face steady. The people online suggested a box of sand, but I used my good old ice-cream tub, that happened to be oval in shape and smaller than a face. A tissue box might also do the trick, but you just need something to hold your face stady while the plaster sets.

Plaster comes in many grades, and I bought the cheapest one (1kg for HKD$14). The people at the store were really helpful, and the guy gave me the follow instructions: Use as much powder as volume of your intended cast. Add water (the ratio is supposed to be 7 parts water to 10 parts plaster, but I just think of it like adding water to the rice-cooker). The trick is then, if you pour it in and let it sit a while, the excess water will float up and can be drained off.

Final trick: before the plaster sets, scoop out a bit of the middle with a spoon (like removing a pit out of an avocado. Apparently if the plaster is too thick, it will crack easily, so you remove the middle so that noen of the walls are too thick. Now if you get the timing right, you could even nudge the walls up around the forehead and cheekbones; or pile the excess around the forehead area. That way, when you rest the face on the table it will tilt up towards you.

There are also other methods to life-casting. If you want a more precise mould of your features (down to your actual pores and fingerprints!) I read about using something called alginate (they were out of stock at the Yau Ma Tei store, and I couldn’t be bothered to wait.) This webpage discusses the use of alginate and also gives some good photos/tips for sealing someone up. Apparently you’re supposed to “Talk softly to the person letting him know exactly what you are doing…”

This content is only viewable by site members. In order to view, please first login or sign up for FREE.

Why, an inclusive dance

何必呢？每次見到舞者毫無保留的喜悅，就有答案。

跟他們合作，總是會挑戰我對身體或者創作的某些假設。記得有次和志輝一起畫畫，發現自己始終無法模倣到他的落筆的力度。原來不知不覺中，我隻手已受過訓練，要重新學習怎樣那麼盡情，毫無保留地表達自己。
在編舞的過程，會想方法給每個人發揮他的獨特性，或者他在這個生活階段所刺激的感覺。在這裡非常感恩有這些好朋友一路同行。阿蘇、惠燕、志輝、凱楹、Haruka、衍仁…. 多謝你。

《何必呢》 對我來說是一齣奇怪的舞蹈。 靈感來自三到地方： 1）舞者對大自然和新生命的一些描述和表達； 2）舞者在樂華宿舍常常拿着的小啦叭和他們對自己音樂的喜悅； 3）舞者對雕塑的和被雕塑的想像和創作力。 再加上我有一天愕然聽到張國榮唱的《大亨》，聽到的歌詞中的搜尋與質問，覺得很配合我們的動作和主題。

無論在生活上，在創作上，在忙碌中，我們可能都問：「何必呢？」是為自己？是為身邊所愛的人？是為一個好一些的世界?

記得有次有人訪問我爸，問他做了環保先鋒這麼多年，為什麼這麼堅持，有沒有想過放棄？

爸爸答：「以前可能會質疑，有時候會想放棄；但自從有了可凡可未後，自己做的事很實在。」
相信有很多爸爸媽媽（包括懷孕的 Haruka!) 都可能有同感。

 

Guides 導師：Karina Bergen，周可凡 (Hofan Chau) 6:00pm 禪食晚餐 (Zen dinner), 7:00 高能量晚會 workshop 如果你的身體要向你開口講話，它會說些什麼？ 暫且放下一切，來 Club O放鬆一下，在當下一起用身體和聲線來創作。你會感受到、想像到與平日營役生活時截然不同的自己。 讓身體講話，聆聽潛藏體內的智慧吧！ If your body could speak, what would it say? An evening of movement and expression. Come along for an hour of fun, creative, in – the- moment movement. Relax, release, laugh and loosen up in this evening of [...]