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Natasha Rogai

Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) uses its annual show at the Academy for Performing Arts to present edgier, more modern programmes. This year’s offering was “Glam Rock”, a triple bill featuring the music of three rock bands: Depeche Mode, Queen and Hong Kong’s own Beyond.
Brilliantly performed, this was an entertaining evening that showcased the versatility and range of the company’s dancers and included two noteworthy premieres.
Martlet is a brand new work by the husband and wife team of Ricky Hu Song-Wei and Mai Jingwen, following their hugely successful The Butterfly Lovers for HKB in 2024.
It is set to songs by Beyond – the legendary Hong Kong rock band formed in 1983 whose legacy lives on despite (or indeed partly because of) the tragic death of lead singer and songwriter Wong Ka-kui in an accident at the age of 31.
Hu and Mai have sensibly avoided too direct an interpretation of Wong’s lyrics, taking a more abstract approach. A central figure, perhaps representing the songwriter himself, alternates between dancing with passion and stepping back to become an observer as the songs move through different moods – idealism, anger, nostalgia and fortitude.

“I Am Angry” was a high point, an electrifying all-male group number whose dancers responded perfectly to the ferociously driving music. In contrast, the choreographers showed their command of complex partnering in a lyrical duet to the wistful love song “Like You”, beautifully danced by Ye Feifei and Ryo Kato.
The work concludes with the most iconic song of all, “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies”, and ends on a powerful image that echoes the song’s meaning: the ensemble of dancers start by surrounding the protagonist and lifting him up, then gradually slip away one by one, leaving him poignantly alone on the stage.
The title is symbolic – a martlet is a mythical bird doomed to fly forever, only landing on the ground when it dies, famously referenced in another seminal local work, Wong Kar-wai’s film Days of Being Wild.
Images of flight in the choreography were enhanced by fashion designer Robert Wun’s elegant costumes, combining simple leotards for the upper body with flowing drapery in intricately pleated silk from the waist down. Colours were used to striking effect – for the ensemble, women were in white and men in black, while the two lovers were in red and the protagonist wore vivid blue.
Martlet is not a major work on the level of Hu’s previous one-act piece for the company, The Last Song. It could be expanded a little – “I Am Angry” especially ended too soon – and I was not sure what the woman in a purple dress who wandered in from time to time was supposed to represent.

Nonetheless, the confident, accomplished choreography for both solos and groups and the depth of feeling for Beyond’s music made it a pleasure to watch.
Luis Cabrera, a dancer who has inspired some of Hu’s finest work, was magnificent in the central role.
The middle segment of the bill, Andonis Foniadakis’ Strangelove, was created for HKB in 2024 – I reviewed it then and did not like it any better this time around.
Foniadakis’ hectic choreography sets a relentlessly frenetic pace, with no pauses or moments of contrast. The vocabulary of movement quickly becomes repetitive, with constant use of high extensions. Human emotion is completely lacking – the dancers are mostly grim-faced throughout – and the whole thing looks, feels and sounds like something invented by AI and played back on fast forward.
The piece is undoubtedly difficult and even dangerous to perform given the speed at which it is performed, and the dancers deserve credit for doing a heroic job, with Gouta Seki and Zhang Xuening among the stand-outs.
The evening ended on a much happier note with the Asian premiere of Trey McIntyre’s Mercury Half-Life, which, like Martlet, is a piece that celebrates a great band whose lead singer died too young.
McIntyre smartly avoids the trap of pinning his choreography to the underlying rhythms of Queen’s music, which could easily make things monotonous, and likewise makes no attempt to follow the lyrics – nobody does the fandango during “Bohemian Rhapsody”, for example. Another smart decision is not to put the women en pointe, which simply would not work in this context.
Fast-moving yet well-paced and varied, the choreography is intelligent, irreverent and irresistibly playful. The high-octane dancing draws on classical technique but is enriched by elements from a diversity of genres, from show dance to tap to street dance.
From the opening “Bring Back Leroy Brown”, with Basil James displaying an impressive mastery of tap dance, to the rip-roaring finale that had the audience clapping in time to “We Will Rock You”, this was one of the most exhilarating pieces HKB has ever performed and a terrific addition to its repertoire.

The dancers – five men and five women – were clearly revelling in the chance to let their hair down. They had a ball and so did the audience.
While the women, Gao Ge in particular, more than held their own, the men performed with an all-out freedom that was thrilling to watch. James showed off his sense of comedy along with his tap skills, while Kato danced with an abandon I have never seen from him before. Shen Jie, the company’s purest classicist, revealed a whole new side to himself with a sexy shimmy to “Another One Bites the Dust”.
To top it all, following one kind of tour de force in Martlet, Cabrera produced a completely different one, bringing the house down with a series of increasingly spectacular solos.
“Hong Kong Ballet: Glam Rock”, Lyric Theatre, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Reviewed: April 10.


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Hong Kong Ballet brilliantly dances to Beyond, Queen and Depeche Mode in ‘Glam Rock’

Dancers perform Andonis Foniadakis’ Strangelove, part of Hong Kong Ballet’s “Glam Rock” programme at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, in April 2026. Photo: Conrad Dy-Liacco

Dancers perform Martlet, a new work inspired by the music of Beyond. Photo: Tony Luk

Luis Cabrera (left) and Teng Ronger in a scene from Martlet. Photo: Tony Luk

Basil James shows off his impressive mastery of tap dance in Trey McIntyre’s Mercury Half-Life. Photo: Conrad Dy-Liacco

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A scene from the production of Eugene Onegin during the 2026 Hong Kong Arts Festival. This photo was taken on March 19 and features a different cast from the March 21 performance reviewed. Photo: Patrik Borecky

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Hong Kong Ballet’s ‘Glam Rock’ triple bill was a feast of popular music and dance that showcased its dancers’ versatility


Hong Kong Ballet’s ‘Glam Rock’ triple bill was a feast of popular music and dance that showcased its dancers’ versatility.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong Ballet’s ‘Glam Rock’ triple bill was a feast of popular music and dance that showcased its dancers’ versatility

Hong Kong Ballet’s ‘Glam Rock’ triple bill was a feast of popular music and dance that showcased its dancers’ versatility