A new ballet opening Wednesday is the first work by an Asian choreographer commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada for its main stage at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
UtopiVerse, by choreographer William Yong, explores the concept of utopia in the age of technology. Yong — who also dances, acts, designs and directs — uses light, music, video and contemporary movement to create his futuristic world.
Yong, born in Hong Kong but based in Toronto, said his creativity emerged in childhood. He said his early experiences, steeped in poverty, helped to shape the ballet that audiences will see. The world premiere leads a winter triple bill that runs until Sunday.
“Your personal story can influence so much of your art,” Yong told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning.
For a time, when his mother was working two jobs, Yong lived with his cousins, aunt and uncle in a tiny high rise apartment. He recalled the Hong Kong of that time as a city “on the boundary of colonialism and capitalism.” Later, when his mother was again able to look after William, he lived in equally crowded quarters with his parents, siblings and grandmother. As a child, he relied on his imagination for amusement.
“Honestly, I am really thankful and I feel enormous responsibility. I want to do well,” he said. “I’m over the moon. I just do not believe it. You know, that part of me, inside of me thinking, that little child in Hong Kong, I would never be able to go back and tell him that, you know, one day you are going to have this opportunity. I’m really thankful.”
UtopiVerse, not a traditional ballet with pointe shoes, was inspired in part, Yong said, by Paradise Lost, by English poet John Milton in 1667, writing about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said the show is also about human evolution and how one person’s utopia can be a dystopia to another.
Yong said his work doesn’t draw on Asian culture and heritage, and he was surprised to learn he was the first Asian choreographer to have a main stage ballet commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada. But he said he’s honoured and grateful for the opportunity to tell a story that springs from his childhood experiences.
Yong recalled how as children, armed with his uncle’s flashlight, he and his cousin pretended they were conducting deep-sea diving expeditions under the bed. Their imagination taking flight, the children strapped empty shoe boxes to their backs, pretending they were oxygen tanks.
Though the apartment was rundown and shabby, he said he and his cousin thought it was perfect.
“And in old Hong Kong apartments, there were always creatures under the bed. And sometimes when we see insects, we think that they are fishes,” Yong said.
“I had to really play with my imagination when your family has such limited means. We didn’t have money to buy toys,” he said. “Those days really set me up as a really imaginative person. I think my creativity really stemmed from those places.
‘Dance just took over,’ choreographer recalls
Yong, who has the tall, lean build of a dancer, said his first passion was music — not ballet. But at 18, his grades weren’t good enough to continue his music studies. His friends encouraged him to audition for the dance program at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, promising him it would help his singing career.
“Dance just took over after that,” he said.
Yong received a scholarship from the Hong Kong government to further his study in dance anywhere in the world. He chose the London Contemporary Dance School in London, England. He got a master’s degree from the University of Kent, where he did a dissertation on dance and film.
LISTEN | CBC’s Mary Wiens interviews William Yong:
5:57Toronto’s National Ballet of Canada premiering its first commission from an Asian choreographer
Choreographer William Yong says his childhood, living in poverty in a cramped high-rise apartment in Hong Kong, fired his creativity – and shaped his new ballet opening March 20th – the first time the National Ballet has ever commissioned a piece from an Asian choreographer.
His mother decided to live in Toronto and asked all of her children to move there too. He said he gave up everything to move to the city in 1999 and is now a proud Canadian.
In Toronto, he found work in a chocolate shop and worked as an usher at the Harbourfront Centre, before joining the Toronto Dance Theatre. He has since founded two companies, Zata Omm and W Zento Production, where he is the artistic director.
Now, he said he doesn’t take anything for granted.
“I treasure every single human connection, I treasure every thing I purchase, I treasure every square foot at home,” he said.
‘He has his hand in every aspect of his work’
Hope Muir, artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, said Yong’s pedigree includes dancing with renowned choreographers Wayne McGregor and Matthew Bourne. He has also worked with such companies as Côté Danse, Canadian Stage, Against The Grain, Toronto Dance Theatre, Peggy Baker Dance Projects and Fila 13.
“I felt like all of those experiences and his interest in using technology would be a wonderful addition to the company’s repertoire,” Muir said.
“He’s one of the most multifaceted choreographers that I’ve had the privilege to work with. He’s been so involved with the curation of his music, with the design, with the film elements, even with social media posts and photography. He has his hand in every aspect of his work, which I really, really respect.”
“William is so kind and generous and dedicated to his craft. He is a creator based here in Toronto and I think that it’s important for people to come out and support that.”
Muir said she is thrilled that he is the first Asian choreographer to produce a main stage work and was “quite shocked” at the oversight.
“It was probably never intentional. It’s just how the work and the repertoire was curated. It probably just wasn’t a consideration, and no ulterior motives, or like I said, probably not intentionally.”
Michael Crabb, a freelance writer who reviews dance performances for the Toronto Star, said: “William is a respected member of the Toronto dance community, first as an excellent performer and then as an inventive and thoughtful choreographer, and more recently dance film-maker.”
Today, Yong’s mother has late-stage Parkinson’s and lives in long term care. When the curtain rises on Wednesday, she won’t be present. But she did have the chance in 1998 to watch her son perform as a male swan in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake in New York City on Broadway.
Yong said she was so touched by the performance that she cried throughout it. It was the first time she had been out of Hong Kong.
And when she learned of his commission for the National Ballet of Canada two years ago, Yong says his mother was thrilled because she knew what it meant to her imaginative son.
“We don’t need perfect conditions to be perfect. Those days, I still think, that [was] the most beautiful childhood to me,” he said.