聚焦
The Dancer who Appreciates Life
周佩韻
2013年12月16日
Artistic Director and founder of Passoverdance, Chair of LCSD (Leisure and Cultural Services Department) Dance and Multi-Arts Art Form Panel, Vice-chairman of Hong Kong Dance Alliance
Pewan Chow loves modern dance for its freedom of expression, its texture and most of all, its naturalness. She first learned it at 19, a rather late age to start considering the physical demand on the body; but once her mind was made up, she has never looked back. For the next four years, she enrolled in the Academy’s School of Dance and became the first Advance Diploma graduates in 1988, only to go back six years later to receive her BFA in 1995. “I have had a great time at the Academy because as a small group we were very close; and the teachers put a lot of trust in us and the curriculum was designed to suit us by accommodating features of the local culture”, Chow said.
Between 1991 to 2006, Chow taught at the Academy, obtaining her MA in Choregraphy at Laban Centre, London in 2003.
A well-known choregrapher and artistic director of Passoverdance, a company she took up in 1993, Chow is now as much devoted to teaching as choregraphy because she believes in education. As a student, the one thing she remembers most vividly is : life is not all about dance, one must acquire a taste for other finer things such as movies and music; it is only by doing so that students acquire the sensitivity that would take their art to another level. “It would be too narrow to just focus on the skills because there is a limit to what you can do in that area,” Chow said, adding that young people must be patient and be attentive to what happens around them; what they have gained from their experience will show in their work.
True to what she preaches, Chow used to take three years to produce a dance number by patiently going through the concept stage, fine-tuning, rehearsals and workshops. Her work Maze received the Hong Kong Dance Award in 2013 (Outstanding Independent Dance & Outstanding Design for Dance), another work Homecoming received the award in 2010 (Outstanding Independent Dance & Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer).
Fresh from her recent accolade, Chow is again taking her time before her next work; in the meantime, she has just come back from bringing her performance to an orphanage in Kwangsi, the Mainland where she went with some students. This is the kind of experience that keeps my creativity going, Chow said.
About Pewan Chow
Pewan Chow received a MA Choreography from Laban Centre, London in 2003. She is among the first generation of BFA graduates in dance from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. After her 1st graduation in 1988, she was awarded a scholarship to the London Contemporary Dance School to further concentrate on choreography and performance. In 1991, she returned to HK and joined the full time modern dance faculty at the HK Academy for Performing Arts where she taught until 2007.
As an independent choreographer and performer, she has performed and created works with companies locally and overseas. In 1993, she founded Passoverdance and has been its Artistic Director. She received the Hong Kong Dance Award 2010 & 2012 for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance for the Passoverdance production of “Homecoming” & “Maze”.
2013年12月16日
Artistic Director and founder of Passoverdance, Chair of LCSD (Leisure and Cultural Services Department) Dance and Multi-Arts Art Form Panel, Vice-chairman of Hong Kong Dance Alliance
Pewan Chow loves modern dance for its freedom of expression, its texture and most of all, its naturalness. She first learned it at 19, a rather late age to start considering the physical demand on the body; but once her mind was made up, she has never looked back. For the next four years, she enrolled in the Academy’s School of Dance and became the first Advance Diploma graduates in 1988, only to go back six years later to receive her BFA in 1995. “I have had a great time at the Academy because as a small group we were very close; and the teachers put a lot of trust in us and the curriculum was designed to suit us by accommodating features of the local culture”, Chow said.
Between 1991 to 2006, Chow taught at the Academy, obtaining her MA in Choregraphy at Laban Centre, London in 2003.
A well-known choregrapher and artistic director of Passoverdance, a company she took up in 1993, Chow is now as much devoted to teaching as choregraphy because she believes in education. As a student, the one thing she remembers most vividly is : life is not all about dance, one must acquire a taste for other finer things such as movies and music; it is only by doing so that students acquire the sensitivity that would take their art to another level. “It would be too narrow to just focus on the skills because there is a limit to what you can do in that area,” Chow said, adding that young people must be patient and be attentive to what happens around them; what they have gained from their experience will show in their work.
True to what she preaches, Chow used to take three years to produce a dance number by patiently going through the concept stage, fine-tuning, rehearsals and workshops. Her work Maze received the Hong Kong Dance Award in 2013 (Outstanding Independent Dance & Outstanding Design for Dance), another work Homecoming received the award in 2010 (Outstanding Independent Dance & Outstanding Performance by a Female Dancer).
Fresh from her recent accolade, Chow is again taking her time before her next work; in the meantime, she has just come back from bringing her performance to an orphanage in Kwangsi, the Mainland where she went with some students. This is the kind of experience that keeps my creativity going, Chow said.
About Pewan Chow
Pewan Chow received a MA Choreography from Laban Centre, London in 2003. She is among the first generation of BFA graduates in dance from The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. After her 1st graduation in 1988, she was awarded a scholarship to the London Contemporary Dance School to further concentrate on choreography and performance. In 1991, she returned to HK and joined the full time modern dance faculty at the HK Academy for Performing Arts where she taught until 2007.
As an independent choreographer and performer, she has performed and created works with companies locally and overseas. In 1993, she founded Passoverdance and has been its Artistic Director. She received the Hong Kong Dance Award 2010 & 2012 for Outstanding Achievement in Independent Dance for the Passoverdance production of “Homecoming” & “Maze”.
