"The Academy and I go back a long way." The new Director of HKAPA, Professor Anna CY Chan, exudes a gentle grace, and her words are clear-cut and precise. It's clear that her training as a dancer permeates not only the way she moves but also thinks and communicates.
Professor Chan started taking ballet lessons when she was young. In 1987, prior to undergoing professional dance training in Australia, she enrolled on a three-month dance course at HKAPA. That saw her set foot on campus for the first time.
After graduation, she joined the theatre and dance world, working as a professional dancer, lecturer, curator, and arts administrator. In 2018, she became Dean of Dance at the Academy. This year, Professor Chan was appointed as the eighth Director of HKAPA.
"All my job changes, whether in education, administration or the arts, happened at an opportune time," she believes. "They brought me a multitude of experiences that will inform everything I do in my latest position."
Professor Chan also has a professional balance, having moved back and forth between artistic productions and arts administration for many years. "One can adopt an artistic approach even to administration and the commercial side of things," she insists. “The artistic training I had received since childhood equipped me with this capability. Artists are often labelled self-centred individualists, but performing arts is a form of communication that transmits artists' ideas to the public through different mediums.”
Prior to her latest appointment, Professor Chan had served the Academy in various capacities. In 2002, she conducted research here via external recruitment. The year 2005 saw her teaching as a full-time lecturer at the School of Dance, as well as organising the first Gifted Young Dancer Programme.
"A couple of years later, the then-Director of the Academy, Professor Kevin Thompson, had plans to launch the Performing Arts Education Centre," she recalls. “He was of the view the Academy should do more systematic outreach, and encourage students to give back. I became the centre's first person-in-charge, a position I held for seven years.”
Professor Chan was recruited by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in 2013 to research a blueprint for dance. A year later, she became the first head of dance for the district, responsible for shaping West Kowloon's artistic direction and strategies in her field, as well as planning the construction of its first dance centre. "Emotionally, I was reluctant to leave the Academy," she admits. "But West Kowloon was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I felt compelled to do my bit for art and culture in Hong Kong, so I accepted the challenge."
Getting the Community to Dance
After a four-year hiatus, Professor Chan returned to HKAPA as Dean of Dance. She tapped into her West Kowloon experience to fortify relations between the School and the performing-arts industry. "If Hong Kong is to take up space on the global art and cultural stage, we need to offer artists more opportunities to go international," she explains.
In her opinion, the performing artists of the 21st century need excellent technique and breadth of vision – that term "breadth" applying not only to their professions, but also to their hearts and minds. "To give is a blessing," Professor Chan says. "Artists should give without hesitation because it is only through giving that one truly receives."
How best can artists and administrators introduce the art of dance into the community? The Jockey Club Dance Well Project, planned and curated by the School of Dance, offers one example. It's a creative dance project designed for individuals with Parkinson's disease, although family members, carers and loved ones of all ages and backgrounds can take part. Professional artists act as teachers to help participants experience the creative and therapeutic power of dance, in different artistic spaces. Professor Chan says the sessions touch her deeply. "The aim of artistic creation is not self-gratification, but giving," she notes. "Witnessing and being inspired by the interaction between the artist teachers and students reaffirms my commitment to my beliefs."
Six-in-One Advantage
After taking the reins as Director this April, Professor Chan has devoted her time to flagship projects such as the new HKAPA campus in the Northern Metropolis, in the northern New Territories. Over the last two years, the Academy has conducted background research for the project. The next step is to form a development plan based on the research.
"I hope to draw upon my experience in planning and development in West Kowloon Cultural District to explore the future of the performing arts and film, together with my coworkers from all six Schools," she says. "Tertiary institutions with six performing and film arts areas under one roof are few and far between anywhere in the world."
Professor Chan likens the Academy to a family. "Family members share similar DNA profiles, but they may have distinctly different personalities and dreams," she explains. "Similarly, the six Schools operate under the same policies, but each has its own features." To make the most of the Academy's strengths, the six Schools need not only to work closely together but also to think about the future as users with different needs.
"It's meaningless to double the size of the campus if one doesn't have the human resources required," she maintains. "We must first set a long-term vision before planning how best to use the space." Professor Chan will consider the positioning of the new campus, and how it and the main campus in Wanchai can complement one another, with the aim of setting HKAPA apart from similar performing-arts institutes in the Greater Bay Area.
Tech Transfer in the Arts
Professor Chan observes that HKAPA has the benefit of a solid foundation that should allow it to shine so long as it stays true to its mission and standards. However, she also believes the Academy should capitalise on its 40th anniversary by reviewing past accomplishments, then pushing to scale even greater heights. The primary goal now is to strengthen exchange with industry not only in Hong Kong, but also in the Mainland and overseas.
The performing arts field is always evolving across the globe. The Schools and their people therefore need to be tapped into the industry so they can adapt as new modes of performance emerge. For instance, performing-arts productions are increasingly emphasising the importance of sustainability. To nurture the next generation of performing-arts professionals, the Academy should ensure programmes and operations embrace the concept of sustainable development.
"The Academy must stay abreast of the times for our graduates to be attractive to the market of the future," Professor Chan says. "The training we offer should not only be adequate for entering the profession; it should also equip students with professional knowledge that will last for at least five to ten years. Making more workplace internships available is one way of rendering our graduates more competitive."
Professor Chan points out that the Academy, home to seven fully professional performance venues, can play a leading role technically and academically, as it enables the Schools to give back to society and their respective professions. What's more, the Academy can complement the development of technological innovation in Hong Kong by creating platforms for the promotion and incubation of cutting-edge technology in the performing arts.
"The performing arts have always been intimately tied to technology," Professor Chan says. "Conditions are ideal for the Academy to evolve into an incubation centre that would enhance dialogue between the two sectors." Citing the example of cultural intellectual property, she encourages creative students of HKAPA to use the performing arts as a catalyst for their innovative ideas. "We need to think ahead about how to equip our students academically, artistically and technologically for the workplace of the future, and enable them to be in constant communication with the rest of the world," she says. "This is the direction we need to explore as an academy, and a stakeholder in our industry."
Professor Chan hopes to bring her vision to fruition during her term as Director of HKAPA. Any success should contribute to Hong Kong's development into a hub of global exchange for the performing arts.