02, February 2012
We are in rehearsal again for Sandy Lam’s sold out concert MMX II. Back at the Coliseum I am jumping around with a huge pregnant belly and dancing baby inside (new suggestions for baby name = Sandy or Urbtix hahaha). I love, love, love working with Sandy. She is such a consummate professional and multi talented performer, full of generosity and positivity. I’ve worked with a lot of artists from all sorts of industries all around the world, from grass roots to uber famous and Sandy has got to be one of my favorites to work with. Just wish I could have more time
Watch out for the DVD featuring a very pregnant me…
Some of my favorite photos from the pieces I choreographed…
Kurong : Sandy metamorphosises in a beautiful dark contemporary piece. We stuck to a similar style as in the MV with a lot of insect inspired moves
A Play : Underneath the ethereal costumes are 4 hardworking dancers! In this piece we tried to give a theatrical effect expressing the fine line between reality and a show
Love Laughs : My favorite routine featuring a queen like Sandy amongst her courtesans was playful and very quirky, but the supremely professional dancers had to dance on a very rickety rising platform!
Communication : Beautiful, stunning, moving… featuring the very talented dancer Egg and a stripped down and barefoot Sandy Lam
詞不達意 vs 翩娜包殊
Jen vs Pina
5, October 2011
I’m so flattered. I just read a post on a video clip of ‘Communication’ from Sandy Lam’s concert that I choreographed, that someone thought I copied it from Pina Bausch (Choreographer Extrordinaire who recently had a film released about her life) Totally not possible as I had choreographed and we were already rehearsing when the movie came out; but my next thought was how flattering!! To be thought of in the same plane, uttered in the same breath as one of the most admired Choreographers. I’m not a big fan of her work, she’s a little too strange and I did come away from the movie confused and scratching my head, but as a boundary breaker and creative mind she is an inspiration. I would always like to keep that element even within the industries I work in (Music, Corporate, TV/Film). I find I’m always struggling between creativity and business – a struggle between what I would really like to do and what the client will accept. So whatever made that youtube user think of Pina when watching the routine, makes me smile and reminds me to always push outside the box
Lam Rehearsals
by jenchiang
20, September 2011
I’ve been in Sandy Lam concert world for the past few weeks. Rehearsing with 6 super talented and professional dancers, it’s been a great experience.
Music concerts are viewed differently here and are produced very differently from what I’m used to.
The concerts I’ve worked on before have been months in planning, and then at least six weeks in rehearsals full time everyday. This concert is then taken on tour for the whole year. In HK, the rehearsal time is almost as little as 2 weeks and then changed and adapted last minute right until the final day of the show.
There’s nothing wrong with it – but just a different way of working that I needed to get used to and understand.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. I loved working with Sandy. Not only is she a amazingly talented artist but also a beautiful person and a hard worker. My favourite artist is one that sheds all image, perception and insecurities – sheds all the outside layers of the onion – to give up the essence inside. The best performers are the ones that can reach this deep onstage and serve it on a platter to the audience; sweat, tears and all.
Anyway, I’m in the Colliseum this week for the first round of technical and dress rehearsals. Considering we are hanging the dancers from cocoons 30 ft high and dancing in 10 ft costumes there may be a lot to do!
5 days until opening night
"枯榮"MV
Kurong MV : The Life Cycle
18, August 2011
On location as the Choreographer for Sandy Lam’s new MV ‘Kurong’ we all bundled in to a van to get to one of the most interesting locations I’ve ever shot at.
We rock up to a deserted and pitch black old meat packing factory that hasn’t been running for at least 10 years maybe more. There are holes in the ground, windows are all blown out and rows and rows of hooks where they hung the pigs/cows.
On the walls and scattered on the floor are old signs written in Chinese, protests at the sudden closure of the factory and loss of jobs for thousands of workers. Noone has even bothered to take them down before closing down the factory. Feels like an animal ghost town.
Fast forward to our MV shoot and we are with a very talented and nice to work with team…………
The concept of the MV is very abstract and quirky – nothing traditionally beautiful – the stuff I LOVE! The song is very dark and lyrics very poetic and deep. Kurong describes both the wither and blossom cycle of a plant. It has been used in ancient Chinese poetry as a metaphor for the ups and downs / birth and death cycle of life. So we are sitting on the fence between beautiful and ugly, life and death, pain and happiness… in a meat packing factory.
I had come up with some ideas of different movements to try out which we did there and then on set and the outcome can be seen on the MV. Sandy was amazing, taking every idea and pushing it even further and making it her own which is exactly what I want in this type of performance.
The team were great. A really lovely bunch of make up artists, stylists and camera crew. Plus they watered us all with red wine which was a nice touch. My kind of Music Video
Making of "枯榮"MV
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