Cultural Centre, Grand Theatre Friday 10-Sunday 12

For the uninitiated, Chinese dance may only stir up visions of beautiful girls with swirling sleeves. But this fortnight, the Hong Kong Dance Company will challenge that perception with their stylised adaptation of the Chinese historical novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

For this dance performance, director/choreographer Yang Yuntao – originally from Yunnan and now the assistant artistic director of the company – has selected seven stories from the 14th-century classic to re-enact onstage, including famous episodes such as “Zhou Yu Sets Fire to Cao Cao’s Chained Warships at Red Cliff”, “Guan Yu Escorts Lui Bei’s Two Wives over a Thousand Miles”, and “Zhuge Liang’s Empty City Stratagem”. These stories are not only Yang’s personal favourites, but also stories that he believes encapsulate the essence of the novel. “I’ve always felt that the narrative is basically a superficial thing,” he says. “These stories all have deeper meanings and underlying emotions. They are about courage; they are about romance.”

Yang’s intention is, therefore, not limited to storytelling. While admitting that dance is not the best medium for complicated narrations, he emphasises that his focus is on the emotions evoked by the tales. “Some people are always asking: is the story true? Are the characters accurately portrayed?” he ponders. “If you’re concerned with this you should watch a film or read a comic book. Dance theatre has a different intention; it brings a different perspective to a familiar story.”

Yang’s dance adaptation focuses on exploring the inner feelings of the main characters amidst the tough decisions that each of them has to face. “We want to capture the characters’ thoughts and feelings – each stage decision hinges on the wish to sketch out their personalities, and not just simply recreating the history and telling the story,” writes Gerard Tsang, script and research director, in the online production notes.

In his choreography, Yang also uses Chinese opera techniques to supplement the Chinese dance. “I think Chinese opera is the classic foundation of our country’s traditional arts,” he says. “It is where the other arts – from dance to theatre and others – extract their nutrition, although dance is the most direct form.”

An experienced dancer and choreographer himself, Yang has performed as a soloist with the Beijing Modern Dance Company and Guangdong Modern Dance Company before coming to Hong Kong, where he has recently choreographed Mulan and Everlasting Love, both presented by the Hong Kong Dance Company.

With 30 dancers, elaborate costumes, and the force of a legendary tale behind it, Romance of the Three Kingdoms promises to be quite a spectacle. Yang himself has grand expectations: “If I can make the audience feel, ‘Wow, there is some sort of beauty to savour’ – if they are somehow shaken to the core – then I will be satisfied.”

Caroline Chen

Tickets: 2734 9009; www.urbtix.hk.