Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts looks inside to find the new director

Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (Hkapa) named Professor Anna Chan Chung-Iing following a global search for a successor to Gillian Choa, who withdrew on January 1.

Chan, the dean of dance from the Academy, said in a statement: “It is an incredibly interesting moment to enter the role of director at Hkapa, while we are marking (40 years) to do talent in the art industry and performing films this year.

“I am eager to … I imagine new possibilities for the academy and to consolidate … career opportunities for our students.” It will take the role on April 18.

Chan is a respected educator and administrator, who has a long association with the Academy, which he originally joined as a lecturer in 2003, after the professional dance training in Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Professor Gillian Choa, who retired as director of the Hong Kong Academy for Arts on January 1, 2025. Photo: May Tse

He paused for four years from the academy when he drove the dance programs of West Kowloon Cultural District The authority since 2014, during which time it has launched international exchange programs and has been involved in the design of the FreeSpace Black Box theater and the Lyric theater complex. He returned to lead the dance school at Hkapa in 2018.

Founded in 1984, Hkapa is publicly funded and has around 900 full -time license students in the six schools, which offers bachelor’s and postgraduate studies in Chinese, dance, drama, film and television, music and theater and entertainment art.