15 days until #DanceWeekend21! Meet Emily Cheung: Artist Director of LIttle Pear Garden Dance Company, a dance company which develops and promtes Chinese dance in Canada. 

At #DanceWeekend21 she will be sharing a Chinese contemporary dance as a preview to the full length repertoire being presented in Toronto in 2023. It tells a story of the most pressing current social issues through an abstract interpretation.

#ComeDanceWithUs Follow @littlepeargdc to learn more about thier Asian Dance form class offerings and their upcoming film! 

 

Can you tell us little bit about yourself/your company/collective/school?

Little Pear Garden Dance Company [LPGDC] (formerly Little Pear Garden Collective) is a professional dance company which develops and promotes Chinese dance in Canada via the production and presentation of performances, lectures, workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions on the local and national levels by creating an environment that supports Canadian artists practicing both Chinese traditional and contemporary artistic expressions. We aspire to develop a distinct voice in the opera and dance ecologies and to be the premiere Chinese performing arts company in Canada that features professional artists, innovative programming, stimulating workshops, and creative new works that reflect passion, honesty, integrity and excellence.

Under the leadership of current Artistic Director Miss Emily Cheung, LPGDC’s vision is in building Chinese contemporary dance vocabularies through innovations and creative works that are meaningful to the Chinese / Canadian Diaspora. Miss Cheung also seeks to collaborate with artists from various disciplines and culturally diverse backgrounds to create work that uniquely combines the different aesthetics and contemporary sensibilities. The main focus of LPGDC is to create repertoires that utilize a unique contemporary dance vocabularies based on both traditional and classical Chinese dance/opera aesthetics. In order to achieve this, all of LPGDC dancers are required to conduct training in traditional and classical Chinese dance and operatic movements to preserve the authenticity of the Chinese elements in the new dance vocabularies.
 

What will you be sharing at DanceWeekend’21?

Chinese contemporary dance that I have planned to work on. Relating to a full length repertoire to be presented in Toronto in 2023. The repertoire reflects on human feelings and experiences that transformed into expression on bodies. It tells a story of the most current social issues through an abstract interpretation. 

 

How has the pandemic shifted your work as a professional dance artist?

Physical distancing has a huge impact in dance. Working with dance artists through the lens of a small camera where we are bound by a tiny frame. We learned and tried to adapt to a new normal. We have now made more dance films than ever before, maximizing by using social media and doing live shows. Dancing in an outdoor environment is fascinating where mother nature controls your lighting, wind, rain and sun are out of our control but that is where it gets interesting. The small detail of zooming into body parts where you will not be able to see in live performances brings another height and made it interesting to my viewers. 

 

Please share what you are most looking forward to at Dance Ontario’s first virtual DanceWeekend? 

Meeting old and new friends who share similar interests in dance! I miss the stage but with this unpresented time, we have to best utilize what we have by virtually joining hands and make the best of what we have. I love sharing music, dance creation with my dance communities. DanceWeekend has always managed to bring people together. 

 

Do you have any up-coming performances/workshops/events you would like to share?

There will be a dance film after the lockdown. We have an extremely talented group of artists in Little Pear Garden Dance Company. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram: littlepeargdc and website: www.littlepeargarden.com. During the pandemic, we offered warm up classes, and learning Asian Dance Forms for anyone interested! Check us out and remember to smack the ‘like’ and ‘follow’ button 🙂 

 

In 1 or 2 sentences, what does dance mean to you?

Movement allows us to express ourselves opening every cell and membrane. Dance is a way to bring unity, love, compassion and integrity in which we lack today. Dance makes people feel, cry, laugh, think and yell. It is an exploration and celebration of life.  It is food for our soul in which we cannot live without.