Born in Guangzhou and raised in Hong Kong, Mui has spent the past 50 years recording and capturing life on one canvas alone: her body. Reflecting on the absence of a performing arts database in Hong Kong, she smiles: "I'm like an oral history vending machine—students keep coming to me because they can't find any archival materials to help with their dissertations." With no documentation to trace past performances and slim chances for a work to get restaged, it became a major challenge for the dance community to create and preserve the classics.

Carving classics in dance
This is why the upcoming performance of her three solo pieces, As Quick as Silver, Awakening in a Dream and Eulogy, at the 53rd Hong Kong Arts Festival is so significant. "For a work to become a 'classic' abroad, you have to perform it at least 100 times. But in Hong Kong, it's hard to even get a re-run for a show. I want to do my part to make classics for this city."

These three early works carry a lot of meaning for Mui—both personally and professionally. On the invitation of legendary dancer Pina Bausch, she performed two of these pieces for Tanztheater Wuppertal on its 25th anniversary. But more importantly, they represent touchstones in some of the most important stages in her career as a choreographer. Created in 1986, shortly after her studies in New York, Awakening in a Dream marks Mui's transition from Chinese to modern dance. For Mui, the 1980s were an extraordinary epoch: the modern dance movement was still thriving, and legends such as Martha Graham were still alive and even opening their studios to the public.