Domestic helpers in Hong Kong applaud arts outreach and seize chance to show their creativity
- Ballet in the City, a series of pop-up performances, is bringing ballet to Hong Kong’s domestic helpers for whom the usual price of a ticket is out of reach
- It is one of a growing number of examples of the city’s arts community supporting domestic helpers and highlighting their lives
It is a hot and steamy Sunday afternoon in March but Garry Corpuz – a shining light in the Hong Kong Ballet – is not sweating it as he gracefully leaps across a makeshift stage outside Statue Square in Hong Kong’s busy Central business district.
Also on stage is Luis Cabrera. Both have principal roles in the company’s latest production, the swashbuckling ballet Le Corsaire, a tale of dashing pirates, bumbling pashas and beautiful harem girls that is based on The Corsair by British poet Lord Byron.
Both also hail from the Philippines, so it is not surprising that the hundreds who have gathered to watch the pop-up performance – mostly Filipinos from the city’s 370,000-strong workforce of domestic helpers – are all smiles. Many domestic helpers gather in the area – and other public spaces in Hong Kong – every Sunday. For most it is their only day off each week, and they come here to talk, eat, dance and listen to music.
The outdoor pop-up performance is part of the Hong Kong Ballet’s community engagement programme, Ballet in the City, which aims to bring dance to all corners of Hong Kong. Another pop-up was staged in Tuen Mun, a remote new town in the New Territories, later in the month.
Among the crowd on this Sunday is Maria Reyes, who has come to meet her friends. Dancing is their thing. She has never seen a live ballet performance by a top-class company before – not because she doesn’t like ballet, but because ticket prices are out of her reach.
