Dancer Acty Tang was a teenager the first time he came to Grahamstown and saw the First Physical Theatre Company’s The Unspeakable Story. The experience ignited a lifelong affair with physical theatre.
Dancer Acty Tang was a teenager the first time he came to Grahamstown and saw the First Physical Theatre Company’s The Unspeakable Story. The experience ignited a lifelong affair with physical theatre.
Today Tang is a director, choreographer, performer, and teacher in both Hong Kong and South Africa, as well asa Standard Bank Young Artists Award holder.
For the next one and a half months, he will also be a guest director of the Rhodes University Drama Department’s next physical theatre production, Hunger.
But Tang is no stranger to Grahamstown.
Born in Hong Kong, he moved to Johannesburg before coming to study at Rhodes University.
He then lived in Grahamstown for 16 years.
After an extensive academic, performance, and choreographing career here, Tang returned to Hong Kong where he has spent the past four years teaching at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and working with a variety of choreographers and performing artists.
Tang cites his years here in Grahamstown as some of the most influential moments of his career as a student, performer, and educator.
“When I was here at Rhodes I was looking at and learning the art of drama in connection with many other things, so I was looking at how drama worked with politics, art, music, everything” said Tang.
He also sees the National Arts Festival as a creative platform unlike any other, due to the fact that the festival takes part in the community, for the community and because of the community.
Because of this, the platform uplifts and benefits not only the individual artist, such as Tang, but the city of Grahamstown itself, and those who come from all over the country for the duration of the festival.
“When I was here, I forgot what Festival means actually, but being away for so long and coming back I see that it’s that thing of meeting together and working with and challenging one another.
"This is what makes Fest so special and so important” said Tang.
“In Hong Kong, you go to the event, you pay, you watch and you go home without engaging with anyone, but here, there’s a constant dialogue within the community that you don’t really get anywhere else.”
In 2007, Tang was presented with the Standard Bank Young Artists Award for Dance, an honour that most artists consider to be a high point in their careers.
For Tang, however, the award meant something different.
"A popular Chinese quote," said Tang, "goes: in the beginning there was no path, but as people began to walk it, it came to be."
“The effect of getting the award wasn’t limited to that year, it wasn’t just something that signified my success and said that I had made it, but rather something that forced me to do better, work harder and aspire to.
"Once I received the award, it was almost like I had to work even harder to deserve it and to further create my path,” said Tang.
Head of the Drama Department, Juanita Finestone-Praeg, says that she invited Tang back because his career spans two countries.
“I thought he would provide some insights and experiences for a rich exchange and choreographic research. And I thought he would be an inspiring role model for the students,” said Finestone-Praeg.
Tang has definitely brought a lot to the department since his stay in Hong Kong where he absorbed a different sensibility, learning how to effectively incorporate refinement and technique into his and his performers’ techniques.
“It’s been great getting a different way of looking at performance and technique and combining and comparing it with South African theatre, mixing the best of both worlds,” said Tang.
“I have a better understanding of technique now that I can incorporate into my theatre and bring to Rhodes drama specifically.”
Describing his new work, Hunger, Tang explains that experiencing South Africa through news headlines while living in Hong Kong inspired him to create a piece that reflects the various socio-political forces in our country.
The play focuses on the type of physical and psychological hungers that drive our nation.
“There is a connection between those two hungers that raise the question of what these imbalances are that are causing things like Marikana and Nkandla in South Africa?” said Tang.
“Physical theatre is not only about using the body as a tool, but focusing on physical sensations and finding a truth in physical expression.”
Hunger runs from Thursday 22 to Saturday 24 May in the Box Theatre. Performances start at 7.30pm.
Tickets are R40 to the public and R25 for students and are available at the Theatre Café.
