About the Artist
Born and raised in Vancouver and now living in Montreal since 1993, Tony Chong is a choreographer, dancer, performer, and creative director. He has an eclectic and curious appetite for many forms of creativity which has led him to work in dance, circus, theatre, new media technology, film, cooking, and photography. Tony is a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseils des Arts et des Lettres du Québec for his creative pursuits and works.
After a year with Cirque du Soleil in 2018-2019 as the Artistic Assistant Director on the show Totem. Tony launched his Collective RNTF (Remember Not To Forget) with Carol Prieur along with other personal creative pursuits and projects such as their latest 50-minute solo Invisible无形.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Dance at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, he continued his studies in New York at NYU's The Tisch School for the Arts and in San José, California with The Limon West and The Limon Company, Quickly after his studies, Chong began working with Kokoro Dance Theatre and other local Vancouver choreographers such as the late Grant Strate. Before setting his sights on Montréal, he danced in the works of Tom Stroud and Tedd Robinson with The Winnipeg Contemporary Dancers in Winnipeg.
Tony also had a prolific career as a dancer with La Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Carbon 14, La Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, Dominique Porte's Système D, Louise Bedard Danse, José Navas' Compagnie Flak, Sinha Danse, Germany’s Steptext Dance Theatre, and most recently Line Nault. He has recently toured in the Michael Montanaro/Navid Navab/Jerome Delapierre/Tony Chong collaboration of the mixed media cooking solo called Practices of Everyday Life/Cooking. From 2005–2008, Tony was the Co-Artistic Director and then the Artistic Director of Le Groupe Dance Lab in Ottawa, Ontario. Currently, Tony is currently with the collective Bluemouth inc in creating a live stream series of épisodes that are leading to a live performance that is being developed for the near future. Since 2012, Tony has been a part of the team of rehearsal directors with La Compagnie Marie Chouinard.
-
Ethnic Origins
East Asian
-
Languages
Cantonese, English, French
-
My Disciplines
Culinary Arts, Dance, Interdisciplinary Arts, Multidisciplinary, Other, Performing Arts
-
Artist Statement
To create performance-related works that are collaborative and often multi-disciplinary in nature. It may take place on a stage, in a site-specific location, on/with film/video/projections, with new media technology, as a performance installation, or simply in a kitchen as a dining experience. Always remaining true to a movement idiom, to physicality, passion, intuition, and instinct as essential elements of RNTF’s work. The work, whether as a solo, duo, trio, group choreography or as an interactive performance art installation, is to provoke and question human patterns and behaviour while incorporating new media forms.
-
What I'm Creating
A fictional documentary called Revealing the Invisible is based on my family history in Canada.