If not for the thoughtfulness underlying their productions, the quirky dancer-choreographer duo of Yeung Wai-mei and Abby Chan – more widely known as Mcmuimui Dansemble – could have easily qualified as a two-women awkward squad. So when the two recount their 1998 work, Something Strange in the Air, it’s really no surprise that they wind up bursting into songs: “Oh Mcmuimui had a farm, E-I-E-I-O…” As Yeung and Chan explain, each of them often chipping in to finish the other’s sentence, “the farm in question is Hong Kong, but nothing on it is fit for human consumption: the chickens are not edible due to bird flu, the fish due to red tide, the cow due to mad cow disease, the vegetables due to pesticides…”

 

Despite not having anything to eat on their farm, the duo has somehow survived a decade together, and is now preparing for the third and last performance of their anniversary series. Unlike their previous works, in which Yeung and Chan choreographed and performed all by themselves, the trio of new shows has seen them involve a range of guest performers. Wetlands of a Woman, about a dead woman’s reflection on her desires and place in the society, is a collaboration between Chan and local playwright/actress Wong Wing-sze; while Boot-leg Butter-fly, a new twist on the ‘The Butterfly Lovers’ Chinese legend, pitches the two’s choreography against writer Chan Wai’s novella.

 

Continuing their experimentation in adapting existing texts for dance theatre performances, Key to Strange Realm is an imaginative “mix-, match-, and merging” of the plot elements in Gabriel García Márquez’s Strange Pilgrims, a short story collection about the odd encounters of Latin Americans adrift in Europe. “Our resonance with the book doesn’t stop with its stories,” says Chan, “instead, we are also drawing from our experience as our [five] dancers have all spent considerable time living in foreign lands.”

 

A fluid combination of dance, theatre, human voice, playful costumes, live video projection, and music from a broken piano (“We’re quite multi-talented!” Yeung boasts mischievously), the new show is a rare occasion not only because it blends the magical realism of Márquez’s work into physical expressions, but because beloved local electronic musician Veegay is going to, uh, ‘dance’. Yeung says of her part as a woman mistakenly trapped in a mental institution: “There’s a rawness and craziness to Veegay’s movement that’s truly awesome. She’s never danced before, but she’s the type of person who naturally moves to the music she plays.”

 

According to Yeung, Strange Realm will also explore the spatial potential of its venue. “There’ll be no seating this time. You may stand, sit on the floor, walk around, or even stand in the centre of the room among the dancers,” says the director. “This is not only ours, but also the audience’s own journey.”