“A sensitive artist with a beautiful technique and an innate sense of storytelling ...
I’d like to announce the newest principal dancer of the National Ballet of Canada: Miss Tirion Law.” This announcement on June 9, 2024, by the ballet’s artistic director Hope Muir, was made on stage after Law’s debut as Kitri in Don Quixote . It came as a complete surprise to the Hong Kong-born dancer.
“My brain was empty and I didn’t really know what to do,” the 28-year-old recalls during an interview while on holiday in Hong Kong. “All I can remember is thinking I should go forward and bow.” Law is one of a number of ethnic Chinese principal dancers making an impact at major Western ballet companies, but the only one who was born in Hong Kong (though Chan Chunwai, principal dancer at the New York City Ballet since 2022, also spent part of his formative years in the city).
The promotion was unexpected since at the National Ballet of Canada, only promotions to principal – the top tier – are announced on stage. Dancers normally move up the ranks one step at a time, and at the time Law was second soloist, two ranks below the top. “I never thought they would skip a stage and promote me to principal,” she says, adding that becoming a principal dancer was always “a dream and a goal”.
She recognises that the role carries a lot of responsibility. “It’s the beginning of a new chapter for me and there’s still a lot for me to learn and grow.” On August 30 and 31, Hong Kong audiences will be able to see Law dance in a show to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Hong Kong Ballet Group (HKBG).
The pair know each other well. Both grew up in Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong’s New Territories, and attended the same primary school and secondary school, where they became friends. Similar in age, they had gone to different ballet schools as children so it was not until they bumped into each other at a competition that they found out they both did ballet.
Until now, they have never danced together professionally. Vicky Wong, chair of the HKBG, says that both dancers told her separately that if the other came back, they would also return. “We’re very lucky that both of them can make the time.
” Law’s passion for ballet began as a young child, when she joined a ballet workshop run by So Hon-wah, a former principal dancer with the Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) and founder of the Hong Kong Youth Ballet Academy. “I guess he saw talent in me and asked if I’d be interested in joining his ballet school,” she says. With the academy being on Hong Kong Island, it was a long way for a little girl to travel from Tsuen Wan.
But Law’s parents were supportive. “My mum would come to pick me up after work every day.” She is grateful to the school and her teachers there, including former HKB principal ballerinas Eriko Ochiai and Ayako Fujioka, for helping to shape her as a dancer, and to So for taking her to competitions in Japan.
“It was an eye-opening experience to see how good other dancers of my age were and how much I needed to work and learn.” Wong remembers that when Law first took part in the HKBG’s Stars Award competition at the age of eight, she entered in five different categories. The organisers thought she would struggle.
“But we said, OK, let her try – and then when she was on stage, she just shone,” Wong says. Law won numerous medals in the competition over the years. In 2010, she was awarded two gold medals and a scholarship to the summer intensive programme at the New Zealand School of Dance.
“That was another eye-opening experience,” she says, “It was my first time doing ballet and dance all day. As a professional school, it’s quite different from doing ballet class once a day or four times a week.” When the programme ended, the school’s director, Garry Trinder – a former HKB artistic director – invited her to join the school full time.
At that point Law knew she wanted a career in ballet and how important it was to train at a professional school. In Hong Kong, such training is only available at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, which only accepts students who have finished secondary school, usually at the age of 17 or 18. By that age, talented young dancers elsewhere are usually ready to graduate from a professional ballet school.
A full scholarship enabled Law to go to New Zealand at the age of 16, with the blessing of her parents, to whom she pays tribute for their constant support. “I know that some parents in Hong Kong really want their kid to become a doctor or a lawyer or something like that and my parents never pushed me to do that, they really let me choose what I wanted to do.” In 2015 she returned to Hong Kong and joined the HKB as an apprentice, before being promoted to the corps de ballet after two years.
While Law describes the HKB as “an amazing company”, her long-term plan was to work with a bigger troupe and explore a wider repertoire. She approached the National Ballet of Canada and joined the corps de ballet in 2018. Despite the experience she had gained already, the first three months were tough.
“It was a lot for me, but all the dancers were very welcoming. It feels like a family. ” Law’s petite physique – she is only 5 foot 2 inches (1.
57 metres) tall – may buck the current vogue for taller ballerinas, but makes her ideal for youthful roles such as Juliet in Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo and Juliet (for which she won the Rolex Dancers First Award) and the title role in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Her debut as Alice won rave reviews, with the Toronto Star writing, “Opening-night honours fell to Tirion Law, only a second soloist by rank but in practical terms already a star.” Announcing her promotion, Muir noted how Law “captivates audiences with her charisma, precise technique and her ability to fully inhabit each character she portrays”.
Law is happy with her life in Toronto and is looking forward to the next phase of her career with the NBC. But does she miss Hong Kong? “My family is here, I miss spending time with them every day. I miss the street food, my friends, the nightlife,” she says, adding with a laugh, “But I don’t miss the Hong Kong summer weather!” She is excited about appearing in Hong Kong, getting the chance to dance with Lam and to perform for the Hong Kong audience again.
It is important, she says, to celebrate HKBG’s 60 years of achievement in the development of ballet and young dancers in Hong Kong. “I gained so much experience from the Stars Award competition,” she says, “and it was because of the competition that I got the opportunity to go to New Zealand and enter the professional ballet world. So I’m very grateful to the ballet group for that.
” “HKBG60 – Inspiring Dancers for 60 Years”, Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium, Aug 30-31, 7.30pm. Tickets available through Urbtix.
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