FIRSTborn Dance Series
Programme 2: Woo Yat-hei – Traffik Is-Land, KT Yau – The Moment 刻 ^
12#–13 October 2026 (Monday to Tuesday)
8pm
@ Studio 1, Xiqu Centre, Hong Kong
Concept, Choreographer and Performer: KT Yau
Producer: orleanlaiproject
Dramaturg: Dong Yan
Rehearsal Coach: Melissa Leung Hiu-tuen
Stage and Lighting Designer: Lawmanray
Deputy Lighting Designer: Ruby Yau
Foley Artist and Audio Editor: Sham Chung-tat
Surtitles: Wilfred Wong
Interviewees in the Research Process: Bowie Chan, Cynthia Kwok, Lam Tsz-wai, Lawmanray, Louise Lee, Scarlett Leung, Siu Ding, Wong Suk-fun
Special Thanks: Anna Chan, Cheng Yee-chai, Christine He, Kim Hyelim, Joanna Lee, Michelle Li, HAKO.EIGA
Production: orleanlaiproject
The 6th HOTPOT East Asia Dance Platform
“The moment 刻”
Choreographer, Performer：KT Yau Ka-hei
Dramaturgy, Rehearsal Assistant：Dong Yan
Support：Hong Kong Arts Development Fund
The concept and ideas were conceived and developed from the “FIRST Creation Platform” presented by WestK.12.11 [Wed] 19:00
@KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre Middle Studio
It is not a still life, but still and alive.
The Moment 刻 explores the performativity of stillness and the dynamics of the gaze. Drawing from KT Yau's previous "Life Drawing" research project, the work investigates how the act of posing and being observed transcends the realm of visual arts practice.
In live drawing sessions, Yau invited her mother, ex-boyfriend, and a professional portrait artist to closely observe and depict her nude form. As they drew, the inviters were asked to verbalize their immediate impressions, memories, and thoughts triggered from their observation. These reflections revealed the complex power dynamics at play — the mother-daughter relationship, the intimacy of former lovers, gender perspectives, aesthetics and history on nude mode drawing, and more.
Beyond a mere still life, The Moment 刻 animates this state of "stillness" on stage. Drawing the reference from the tradition of “tableau vivant” (living picture) — the work positions the performer's frozen pose as a site of performativity. The audience's gaze is given new dimensions, moving between empathy and voyeurism, aesthetics and objectification. Juxtaposing the verbatim materials with the state of stillness and transformation on stage, KT is constructing a work with an autobiographical lens filtered through the eyes of others. With the verbatim records are being transformed into a foreign language in which the power relations are presented in this new version, in challenging the way Yau in positioning the memory and performance. In between stillness and movement, verbatim and performance, intimacy and distance, the work revealed the meaning of nudity and nakedness.
Stages
FIRSTborn Dance Series, Hong Kong, October 2026
Place des Arts, Montreal, Canada, September 2026
Hong Kong Dance Exchange, Hong Kong, December 2024
HOTPOT East Asia Dance Platform, Yokohama, Japan, November 2024
FIRST Creation Platform, Hong Kong, April 2023
