Tale as Old as Time

This Christmas, the Hong Kong Ballet transports the audience to early 20th-century Hong Kong in its brand new The Nutcracker

- Zabrina Lo

When Hong Kong Ballet’s artistic director Septime Webre first arrived in Hong Kong in 2017, he was fascinated by the cityscape. But rather than the skyscrapers lining the harbour, the building that made the greatest impression on him was near his new Mid-Levels home: Kom Tong Hall, which now houses the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum. “Every day I walked by the beautifully restored mansion built in 1914 by the younger brother of Sir Robert Hotung, one of the founding fathers of Hong Kong,” he says. “Inside, there is a very grand white and gold ballroom, and these giant windows that [used to] overlook Victoria Harbour. Now the views are of buildings. Just walking by and wandering through the building makes me wonder what life was like in early 20th-century Hong Kong.”

That curiosity planted the seed for Webre’s reimagining of The Nutcracker in a setting closer to his current home. “The Nutcracker production we had been dancing by Terence Kohler is now nine years old. Upon coming to Hong Kong, I knew that we would need a new one,” Webre says. “The Nutcracker is the most important ballet in repertoire that we dance every year.”