Front-row ticket

While much of the 50th Hong Kong Arts Festival has moved online because of the pandemic, films and live streams will provide unrivaled experiences, starting tonight. Madeleine Fitzpatrick gets the lowdown.

Watch the six-minute documentary — posted by Stephanie Lake Company on Vimeo — on the eponymous Australian choreographer's 2021 collaboration with the Paris Conservatoire, and you get a good idea of what it's like to coordinate rehearsals over Zoom. From the dancers' point of view, Lake is literally larger than life on a big screen, demonstrating intricate steps to the 55-strong troupe getting ready to perform Colossus at Paris's Chaillot National Theatre.

"In previous years, if this had been suggested, I would have said, 'No way!'" says Lake in the film, interviewed from her Melbourne home. "But it's a different world, and we have to be open-minded and creative and adaptable."