Meet the first Asian choreographer commissioned for the National Ballet of Canada's main stage

A new ballet opening Wednesday is the first work by an Asian choreographer commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada for its main stage at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

UtopiVerse, by choreographer William Yong, explores the concept of utopia in the age of technology. Yong — who also dances, acts, designs and directs — uses light, music, video and contemporary movement to create his futuristic world.

Yong, born in Hong Kong but based in Toronto, said his creativity emerged in childhood. He said his early experiences, steeped in poverty, helped to shape the ballet that audiences will see. The world premiere leads a winter triple bill that runs until Sunday. 

"Your personal story can influence so much of your art," Yong told CBC Radio's Metro Morning.

For a time, when his mother was working two jobs, Yong lived with his cousins, aunt and uncle in a tiny high rise apartment. He recalled the Hong Kong of that time as a city "on the boundary of colonialism and capitalism." Later, when his mother was again able to look after William, he lived in equally crowded quarters with his parents, siblings and grandmother. As a child, he relied on his imagination for amusement. 

"Honestly, I am really thankful and I feel enormous responsibility. I want to do well," he said. "I'm over the moon. I just do not believe it. You know, that part of me, inside of me thinking, that little child in Hong Kong, I would never be able to go back and tell him that, you know, one day you are going to have this opportunity. I'm really thankful."

UtopiVerse, not a traditional ballet with pointe shoes, was inspired in part, Yong said, by Paradise Lost, by English poet John Milton in 1667, writing about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He said the show is also about human evolution and how one person's utopia can be a dystopia to another.

Yong said his work doesn't draw on Asian culture and heritage, and he was surprised to learn he was the first Asian choreographer to have a main stage ballet commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada. But he said he's honoured and grateful for the opportunity to tell a story that springs from his childhood experiences.

Yong recalled how as children, armed with his uncle's flashlight, he and his cousin pretended they were conducting deep-sea diving expeditions under the bed. Their imagination taking flight, the children strapped empty shoe boxes to their backs, pretending they were oxygen tanks.

Though the apartment was rundown and shabby, he said he and his cousin thought it was perfect.

"And in old Hong Kong apartments, there were always creatures under the bed. And sometimes when we see insects, we think that they are fishes," Yong said.

"I had to really play with my imagination when your family has such limited means. We didn't have money to buy toys," he said. "Those days really set me up as a really imaginative person. I think my creativity really stemmed from those places.

Yong, who has the tall, lean build of a dancer, said his first passion was music — not ballet. But at 18, his grades weren't good enough to continue his music studies. His friends encouraged him to audition for the dance program at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, promising him it would help his singing career.

"Dance just took over after that," he said.