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Karen

"I have not only developed a new perception of performing arts but also of the world."

Main details

Year graduated 2004
Occupation Festivals manager for Hong Kong's World Cultures Festival 2013
Country Hong Kong

What was your experience of being at Goldsmiths? What did you enjoy most?

"The MA gave me a chance to enhance my theatre knowledge, not only from a purely aesthetic point of view, but also through the appropriation of theatre works within their political, historical, social and cultural contexts. Such an approach was important in facilitating my understanding of the essence and function of performing arts.

I enjoyed the challenging but inspiring course content of the MA, from which I was introduced to a new interdisciplinary approach of perceiving and understanding a diverse range of theatres. Such an approach has broadened my vision and developed my artistic inspights. I can now dare to give new interpretations to existing concepts, or even redefine discourses. Take dance for example. In the past, I only paid attention to how dancers moved and how their movements were arranged. But according to Professor Maria Shevtsova, dance (or choreography) is fundamentally the arrangement of time and space. Dancers can be a medium and not an end. Such a refreshing concept of dance enabled me to understand why choreographers like William Forsythe and Wayne McGregor would hide their dancers on stage from time to time. And I was also inspired to find new possibilities in dance.

I also loved the location of the Goldsmiths campus. With Deptford and the Creekside, the Laban Centre and Greenwich nearby, there were a lot of places for international students like me to explore and get inspired. On the other hand, the possibility of getting to the city centre within half an hour facilitated my frequent visits to world-acclaimed international productions and many interesting and original small and medium theatres from the UK and Europe, as well as various kinds of exhibitions, during my stay in London."

Are there any particular experiences or events that characterised your time here?

"Apart from reading and checking videos in the Library, what I treasure most is exchanging my views on theatre with Maria and my coursemates.

We once went to see 'A Taste for Mangoes', written and directed by Jatinder Verma of Tara Arts. We all had dinner together before the show, and Maria gave us a brief introduction to the director and the play. When we arrived at Wilton’s Music Hall and enjoyed the play, we found that it was not an ordinary drama production. 'A Taste for Mangoes' was in fact an interdisciplinary performance interweaving text with Indian dance, music and even food: one of the characters made mango naan on stage and passed it to the audience at the end of the play! The historic surroundings [of the performance venue] together with what we saw, heard, smelt and tasted generated an overwhelming total theatre experience that still remains vivid in my mind after all these years. The beautiful night was concluded by an enthusiastic discussion with the director, thanks to Maria’s arrangement.

I was most impressed by Maria’s intention of using this production to remind us of the concept of 'habitus' (Bourdieu’s social theory) that we learnt during the MA. It was equally fascinating for me to find, after all these years, that I kept using 'A Taste for Mangoes' as a point of reference when I worked as the programme manager of the New Vision Arts Festival scouting for cross-cultural and cross-boundary avant-garde programmes."

How did your time at Goldsmiths help you in your career?

"Understanding performing arts as part of a sociocultural process from an interdisciplinary perspective allowed me to conduct a comprehensive analysis of various forms of theatres, from their artistic merits to their relationship with the society.

It also enabled me to predict the future trends of performing arts, and consider how our festivals should act or react accordingly. Such artistic insight is a prerequisite for being a successful festival curator.

Studying with Maria at Goldsmiths was a self-enlightening experience for me. I have not only developed a new perception of performing arts but also of the world. 

I’m glad I can contribute what I learned at Goldsmiths back to the Hong Kong performing arts scene." 

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