What is "modern dance"? Broadly speaking, the term "modern art" is used by historians to describe the new art concepts and behaviours in Europe and America at the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, at the beginning of the 1920s and 1930s, many European artists fled their countries from the First and Second World Wars and migrated to America (with New York being the centre), where they converged with American artists and create a multicultural wave. As there were no historical or cultural burdens in America, arts from "self-proclaimed schools", of "different specialties" and "diversity", "art for art's sake" creations and arts of "purely rational science" became the representative products of modern arts. Hence, "modern dance" is by no means an artistic creation of "here and now" as is commonly believed, but rather the special skills and styles created by the great masters of the previous generation, including Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Jose Limon and Rudolf Laben. The "post-modern" dance that appeared later, or what is known as the "integration period" or "harmony period", is actually a response to this concept of specialized, pure dance skills whereby one seeks the common grounds to have a dialogue and communicate with the different "specialties". In fact, we could simply call it "contemporary" dance in which dancers improvise according to the times and situations they are in. It is extremely flexible and organic; it narrates the various "modern" cultures; it is true to the subjectivity of the self and at the same time incorporates the worldview of the environment in which the artists find themselves.

city:zen is an obvious example of contemporary dance. Its creation is a fusion process by two choreographers, each accomplished in her own style, who seek a deep integration of different dance genres. It involves the encounter of not only the ideas of the choreographers but also the "personal" backgrounds of the dancers from the two troupes, which constitute the important elements of this cultural dialogue.

Among local dancers, Mui Cheuk-yin is one who has truly made a name on the international dance arena for successfully integrating Chinese and Western culture in her choreography. Having been principal dancer of the Hong Kong Dance Company for 10 years, she has acquired profound Chinese dance skills. Her later works that incorporate American and European styles such as "contact improvisation" are strong testimony of her achievements. Likewise, London-based Indian choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh blends her native South Indian dance Bharata Natyam with various martial art including Kalaripayattu and Western contemporary dance. She constantly deconstructs and reconstructs nouveau various ways of choreographing, resulting in a different vision of avant garde dance aesthetics. Given that the two choreographers have each succeeded in merging two vastly different dance styles, their intercultural collaboration can be compared to a quartet! However, it is by no means a discord of contrasting styles but rather a harmonious union of two tours de force of contemporary dance.

Bharata Natyam attaches a lot of importance to the rhythm and force of tapping and stamping on the floor. At the same time, the body is always in an angular posture. It emphasizes the skills of alternating constantly and crisply between speed, steadiness, force and flexibility. The centre of gravity remains low with power originating from the floor as in the Chinese martial art taichi. Kalaripayattu combines martial art skills and dance aesthetics. Like the popular Brazilian war dance Capoeira, it is a crossover that began first as a martial art and gradually developed into a dance genre. This reminds us of the Chinese dance, which took the acting and fighting elements of the Chinese opera, refined them and integrated them with the pure dance skills of the Russian ballet. From here, we can see the important corner stone of the dialogue – in contemporary dance, the dancer does not necessarily require a partner; but in martial arts, one must have a counterpart. When the Chinese-style contemporary dance meets the Bharata Natyam-style contemporary dance, it would be interesting to see if it would be a dance between partners or a martial combat. Furthermore, would the dancers take this opportunity to showcase their own dance/martial skills or would they learn from each other in this collaboration and know their counterparts so well that no final winner can be found? This could bring about a new definition of "exchange" and "collaboration".

In city:zen, Mui Cheuk-yin and Shobana Jeyasingh have adopted a brand new form of exchange – it is not purely a joint choreography. Each of them first selected individual dancers that have excellent Chinese dance skills or Bharata Natyam techniques. These dancers were then sent across the globe to participate in the "student exchange" programme of the other troupe. (Or were they like spies who gathered intelligence of the other troupe; who penetrated into the other troupe to "convert" its dancers one by one; or made them "switching loyalty" in the first place?) Then the choreographic exchange began. At this point, each choreographer reinterpreted and re-choreographed the part created by her counterpart, which was followed by joint rehearsals. This is an extremely serious process of collaboration and exchange across time and space. In every corner of the maze setting of city:zen lies all sorts of risks and opportunities of "collaborative choreography", producing lots of excitements and challenges in this innovative creation.

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