Qingming Riverside is an interest piece of work from the Song Dynasty. It’s length and the details are far more than just interesting; the painting was arranged carefully with scenes of daily life along the riverside.  

Not having any luck to see the painting, but managed to see HKDC performing the dance makes me feel better.

The dance transformed this Song scroll into rhythms and movements; a combination of Chinese and Modern dance presented by 6 lead dancers in 15 scenes. My favorite piece of work is the scene where the boatmen gathered in the middle of the stage with power, and heavy rhythms. Even with this is the "lover" scene, a very nice use of the "floating umbrellas" as props created a dimension for the stage. My second favorite scene is the appearance if the River Goddess- pretty to watch.

My very own instinct tells me that this piece of dance should stick to traditional staging with minimal multimedia effects. It was quite disappointing when I saw the use of slide projected onto the backdrop to present the holy ring of light. Would the usage of the light panel do the similar effect by using the foil and "zoom"?  

I think the "worship of the Goddess" is my least favorite scene. Besides the use of the slide, I also have a comment on the costume of the "goddess bystanders". Seems to me that they dressed like the maids who are working for the wizard at the dragon-guarded towers!

About the guest performer- a canton pop singer, she sang 2 songs which are totally not my taste anyways. So, I don’t have any further comment.

The scene design was great! The bridge, which is the main focus of the painting, is there! The side wings are into great details; nice! Watching this dance was like watching the "summary" of the painting. I am so glad to see this painting was brought onto stage and expressed with real people! :)