ED FRINGE 2023 INTERVIEW | Andy Lo, No Dragon No Lion

With the Edinburgh Festival Fringe now underway, we’ve caught up with some of the artists and creative teams to chat about their work. Amongst all of the things you can see is No Dragon, No Lion. We spoke with Andy Lo from Hong Kong-based dance company, TS Crew to find out more..

1. Let's begin by pitching your show at the Ed Fringe, tell us about it?

In 2021, the year that Hongkongers started ‘drifting to different places’, TS Crew and its artistic director Hugh Cho decided to create a contemporary dance-circus show based on their cultural roots as a gift to their fellow citizens. Our show – No Dragon No Lion – is the resulting work. It deconstructs the Lion Dance, a deeply traditional ritual form of performing arts in Hong Kong, beloved for its fixed dance motifs, stunts, soaring jumps and flips.

Ten performers transform the Chinese opera classic into a thrilling performance incorporating beatboxing, martial arts, tricking and parkour. The characters are physical and mental drifters who take the audience with them into a new environment and unfamiliar land. And, through revisiting their traditional cultures, they build new meaning and something they can own.

2. Where did you draw your influences from for this piece?

Back to 2016, a group of Hong Kong artist delegates attended an international platform in Germany. Someone popped up to the Hong Kong booth and asked us about the character and style of contemporary dance in Hong Kong. It made us, especially Hugh, really think about that and it gave him an urge to create a new style. When we look at the things around us, we identify Kung-Fu and Lion Dance as something deeply rooted in our daily life. The Hongkongers used to be really proud of the "Made in Hong Kong" action movie, therefore, it makes the culture. Hugh wants to preserve and promote Hong Kong culture but also to make new connections with people. Contemporizing the traditional culture and heritage is not only preserving it, it’s also taking a big step forward, developing it to make it more relevant to people in the contemporary world. As a result of that conversation back in 2016, we had the idea of making a Kung-Fu Contemporary Lion Dance-Circus work.

3. What are the challenges of bringing a piece to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

No Dragon No Lion is a group dance-circus piece involving 10 performers and the cost of bringing all the performers over to Edinburgh from Hong Kong is not easy. Also, as everyone knows, Edinburgh Fringe is one of the most competitive platforms in the world - how to get more audiences and reviewers to attend the show is another big challenge. On top of that, No Dragon No Lion is a highly physically demanding piece. We have to really focus on making sure the performers are in a good shape, both physically and mentally.

4. What can audiences expect from your show?

I would like to ask them what they get from watching our show instead of managing their expectations. It is because you can always be surprised, hopefully in a nice way, if you don't have much or too many expectations! That said, I hope they will come away thrilled and delighted.

5. What are you most looking forward to during your time in Edinburgh for the festival?

We are very lucky that we have a very good team to support each other. And this time, we are not coming to Edinburgh alone, we have a group of teammates in Hong Kong Soul, a new platform TS Crew and different artists from Hong Kong have created. This is a performance platform, but also, a mutual support group, artistically, mentally and physically. We hope Hong Kong Soul can bring something different to the international art scene in order to show the real diversity of Hong Kong artists and their works when compared to the institutionally organized events. And I am looking forward to bringing future editions of Hong Kong Soul to Edinburgh again and again.

6. What are the main things within your piece?

It is a Kung-Fu Contemporary Lion Dance-Circus. You can see the traditional art forms well deconstructed and blended with different elements in a choreographic way.  And as well as the dance, there is beatboxing, martial arts, tricking and parkour.

7. Where can people come and see your show?

From 2- to 13 August at 13:30 at Main House, C Aurora, Lauriston Halls, 28 Lauriston Street, EH3 9DJ