Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts (Hong Kong) A Long Walk
Commissioned by Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts (Hong Kong)
Co-directors / Elysa Wendi & LEE Wai-shing
Artist / Ong Yong Lock
Music & Sound Designer / Ellison Bryan Keong
Producer / Unlock Dancing Plaza
‧Duration : approximately 15 minutes
Since Ong Yong Lock arrived in Hong Kong in the 1980s, he has taken root here, and has been inseparable with dance; dedicating himself to performances, choreography, and teaching, his 30 years long winding road in dance had inevitably gone through ups and downs and he remained persistent. Despite the long winding road in the long dark night, after more than 30 years of dance life, he starts racing on this path again, perhaps for the very last time.
Main Creator
Producer / Unlock Dancing Plaza
Unlock Dancing Plaza is a contemporary dance company founded in 2002, with Ong Yong Lock as Artistic Director and Joseph Lee as Associate Artistic Director (Joined in 2020). Unlock is committed to pursuing innovative breakthroughs and theatrical liberation. These commitments are embodied in and practised through its productions. Curating cross-media, cross-regional, and experimental projects, Unlock Body Lab is developed to discover and show the possibilities of dance in various forms. #DANCELESS includes a series of creative works, performances and workshops that are based on public participation as the main way of artistic practise. It promotes and deepens the diverse imagination of dance; facilitates the mutual exchange between artists and the public through experiencing dance together.
Artist / Ong Yong Lock
This is a long winding road of darkness, where light only shines at the very end - as it is with creative forces; as it is in life.
Ong Yong Lock was born in Malaysia, joined the Hong Kong Dance Company in 1989, then joined the City Contemporary Dance Company in 1993. Ong was a founding member of South 'ASLI' Dance Workshop (SADW). In 1997, he became the Artistic Director of SADW (1997-2001). In 1998, Ong joined the Expressions Dance Company in Brisbane, Australia to perform in the Brisbane Festival. He received the Award for Best Artist (Dance) at the Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2014. In 2002, Ong founded the Unlock Dancing Plaza with Elsie Chau to promote and popularize modern dance. His significant work Wanderer received the 2015 Hong Kong Dance Awards "Outstanding Achievement in Independent Production.''
Co-directors / Elysa Wendi
Elysa Wendi is a dance artist and filmmaker working between Singapore and Hong Kong. Preoccupied with the abstraction of memory from place, time and biographical traces, Wendi explores these themes in her live and filmic works. Straddling between disciplines, Wendi develops her films with a choreographic eye and performative approach. Her short film 1958 Delivery' won the Best Experimental Film award at the 2018 South Taiwan Film Festival, and her film Forgive or Not to Forgive won Best Documentary at Hong Kong Art House Film Festival 2020. She co-founded Cinemovement - a platform for inter-disciplinary film creation together with film producer Jeremy Chua in 2015.
Co-directors / LEE Wai-shing
LEE Wai Shing studied Visual Communication and started his career as an independent filmmaker after graduation. In 2019, he won the Gold Award at the ifva Festival with Family Family Day. LEE is well known for his diversified improvisation and experimental video-editing style. In recent years, he started to create dance videos. His work A Rock won the Jury Prize at the 5th Dance On Screen Film Festival. LEE was the Production Assistant of Chinese Independent Documentary Lab. He is also one of the founding members of an independent film ensemble 1930 collective.
Production Team
Commissioned by Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts (Hong Kong)
Producer / Unlock Dancing Plaza
Artist / Ong Yong Lock
Co-directors / Elysa Wendi & LEE Wai-shing
Guest Appearance / oseph Lee
Cinematographer / Cpak Ming
Art Director / Charlie Wong Liang-yih
Location Recordist & Production Manager / Chui Chih-yin
Production Assistant / Chan Hau-chun
Music and Sound Designer / Ellison Bryan Keong
Colourist / Grace Lee
Post-Production Management / Pica Pica Media
Production Management / 1930 collective
A Long Walk is a dance film commissioned by Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts (Hong Kong). It is presented as part of Dance en Scene by Esplanade, in partnership with National Taichung Theater (Taiwan), National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) (Taiwan) and Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts (Hong Kong).