ENG | Yes, I am a… is a series of interviews curated by Francesco Guazzo within the section NUOVI SGUARDI. Their ensemble collects a sampling of the most varied types of spectators and tries to understand how professional and human identity can influence or not the gaze in watching performances.
Anna Cheng (Hong Kong, 1975) since 2014 is a producer of dance for West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong.
FG: Could you tell me how your professional and human identity may or may not come to influence your gaze as a spectator?
Sure my professional identity will create a different lens for me when seeing the performance. Due to my professional knowledge, nature and background of my work place, and the culture where I come from, that lens will create a certain frame or parameter that influence my gaze and critical thinking as a spectator. I need to be aware of this professional lens and my stake. However, I also found that this time, my own human identity is very active during the performance. I think may be because in the festival, every morning, there are different exercise and thinking process that encourage you to open up a dialogue within one self, whether it is physical or mental. There are constant reflection on our own feeling, identity and practice. So during the performance, I am also constantly shifting my perspectives, navigating between the professional lens and my own lens as a human.
FG: Starting from your own context and coming up to here: a sentence on power.
Power is often associated with authority, a supremacy, so as to “get” more. But I would like to see it as a way to “give” more, to have that energy and capacity to serve and influence more. And everyone has this power. I would like to say this in both of my professional and personal capacity: “Heung Gong Yan Ga Yau!”
FG: A desire for BMotion 2020.
A place for empowerment.
Francesco Guazzo
